The enemy will never attack you where you are strongest... He will attack where you are weakest. If you do not know your weakest point, be certain, your enemy will. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"Nine-eleven, Pearl Harbor, were like fleabites in comparison to this." -- Dan Hunt, college president in the novel, One Second After.
They were like something out of another age, some so obvious caught ill prepared, a man in a three-piece business suit, scuffed worn dress shoes, bandage around his head. Looked like a lawyer or upper-level corporate type... with no skills to sell here for a bowl of watery soup. -- William R. Forstchen, One Second After
This book should be required reading for all first responders and local government personnel - not because the information it contains can not be explained more succinctly, but because it can not be conveyed more humanely.
I can't emphasize the danger that an EMP attack poses better than Speaker Newt Gingrich does in the foreword, "The threat is real, and we as Americans must face that threat, prepare, and know what to do to prevent it. For it we do not, 'one second after,' the America we know, cherish and love, will be gone forever."
The Starfish Prime nuclear detonation, as seen from Honolulu, July 9, 1962, was not designed or intended as a generator of EMP. However, triggered at an altitude of about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, it had far-reaching effects. Some electronic and electrical systems in the Hawaiian Islands, 1400 kilometers distant, were affected, causing the failure of street-lighting systems, tripping of circuit breakers, triggering of burglar alarms, and damage to a telecommunications relay facility. via Executive Report: Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack [PDF]
1 comments:
Here is one example of a person clueless to the wide-ranging disruption an EMP detonation could cause:
Any new technology that bursts onto the scene eventually becomes the norm, then fades away, said Wayne Rau, who works in digital media at UA.
"If an EMP [electromagnetic pulse] went off, I think it initially would be stressful without all of our digitals and cellulars and portables and minis," he wrote.
"People rely more on technologies than people. This is what we presently know. And to some, it is
all they know.
"I think it wouldn't be as bad as one may expect. If everyone, as a whole, is lacking, then we will find other ways of networking. It's how each new generation grows socially.
"Our environment would lighten the burden as well by shifting directions and taking us down a non-technological path."
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