Very interesting read, especially after a few in here said "that there
was no cause for concern" etc. etc. It should be enough to make one
think and not just say "it won't happen here."
****************************


Sunday, March 29, 2009 4:23 PM

By: Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen Article Font Size



A sword of Damocles hangs over our heads. It is a real threat that has
been all but ignored.


On Feb. 3, Iran launched a “communications satellite” into orbit. At
this very moment, North Korea is threatening to do the same. The
ability to launch an alleged communications satellite belies a far
more frightening truth. A rocket that can carry a satellite into orbit
also can drop a nuclear warhead over any location on the planet in
less than 45 minutes.


Far too many timid or uninformed sources maintain that a single launch
of a missile poses no true threat to the United States, given our
retaliatory power.

A reality check is in order and must be discussed in response to such
an absurd claim: In fact, one small nuclear weapon, delivered by an
ICBM can destroy the United States by maximizing the effect of the
resultant electromagnetic pulse upon detonation.


An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a byproduct of detonating an atomic
bomb above the Earth’s atmosphere. When a nuclear weapon is detonated
in space, the gamma rays emitted trigger a massive electrical
disturbance in the upper atmosphere. Moving at the speed of light,
this overload will short out all electrical equipment, power grids and
delicate electronics on the Earth’s surface. In fact, it would take
only one to three weapons exploding above the continental United
States to wipe out our entire grid and transportation network. It
might take years to recover from, if ever.


This is not science fiction. If you doubt this, spend a short amount
of time skimming the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to
the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack from April 2008.
You will come away sobered.


Even as the new administration plans to spend trillions on economic
bailouts, it has announced plans to reduce funding and downgrade
efforts for missile defense. Furthermore, the United States’
reluctance to invest in a modern and credible traditional nuclear
deterrent is a serious concern. What good will a bailout be if there
is no longer a nation to bail out?


Fifty years ago, it was not Sputnik itself that sent a dire chill of
warning around the world; it was the capability of the rocket that
launched Sputnik. The rocket that lofted Sputnik into orbit also could
have served as an ICBM.


Yet for all its rhetoric, the Soviet Union was essentially a rational
power that recognized the threat of mutual destruction and thus never
stepped to the edge.


The world is different today. Intercontinental range missiles tipped
with nuclear weapons in the hands of leaders driven by fanaticism,
leaders that support global terrorism, leaders that have made repeated
threats that they will seek our annihilation . . . can now at last
achieve that dream in a matter of minutes.


Those who claim that there is little to fear from Iran or North Korea
because “at best” they will have only one or two nuclear weapons
ignore the catastrophic level of threat we now face from just “a
couple” of nuclear weapons.


Again: One to three missiles tipped with nuclear weapons and armed to
detonate at a high altitude — to achieve the strongest EMP over the
greatest area of the United States — would create an EMP “overlay”
that triggers a continent-wide collapse of our entire electrical,
transportation, and communications infrastructure.


Within weeks after such an attack, tens of millions of Americans would
perish. The impact has been likened to a nationwide Hurricane Katrina.
Some studies estimate that 90 percent of all Americans might very well
die in the year after such an attack as our transportation, food
distribution, communications, public safety, law enforcement, and
medical infrastructures collapse.


We most likely would never recover from the blow.


Two things need to be done now and without delay:


1. Make clear in the strongest of terms that, if either Iran or North
Korea launches a rocket on a trajectory headed toward the territory of
the United States, we will shoot it down. The risk of not doing so is
beyond acceptable. And if they construe this as an act of war, so be
it, for they fired the first shot. The risk of sitting back for 30
minutes and praying it is not an EMP strike is beyond acceptable,
beyond rational on our part.


2. Funding for EMP defense must be a top national priority. To
downgrade or halt our missile defense program, which at last is
becoming viable after 25 years of research, would be an action of
criminal negligence.


Surely, with such a threat confronting us, a fair and open debate,
with full public access and the setting aside of partisan politics, is
in order. In the meantime, a policy must be stated today that we will
indeed shoot down any missile aimed towards the United States that is
fired by Iran or North Korea. America’s survival, your survival, and
your family’s survival might very well depend on it.


Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is a Senior Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute. William Forstchen is the author of "One Second
After," an account of a town struggling to survive after an EMP weapon
is used against the United States.


[Editor’s Note: Get William Forstchen’s book depicting a nuclear EMP
attack, “One Second After” — Go here now.]










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