Mother of All Blackouts

[Guest kitkat]

If the following scenario occured, how would you, as a Christian, survive? Would you compromise morals, ethics or laws for you and your family to survive? What would you do?

Mother of All Blackouts

Now there's a new threat to prepare for--an EMP blast that could black out the nation.

Saturday, August 14, 2004 12:01 a.m.

Today marks the anniversary of the blackout that shut down much of the Northeast a year ago. Anyone who lived through that power outage remembers the annoyance of life without lights, air conditioning, TVs, computers and all the other electronic equipment on which a modern society depends. Now, imagine a blackout that lasts for months, or years.

That was the job of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. The commission, created in 2000 to examine the possibility of EMP attack and its aftermath, just delivered a report to Congress. All we can say is, we hope someone in Washington is paying attention.

An EMP attack occurs when an enemy sets off a nuclear explosion high in the Earth's atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast destroys the electronics and satellites in its field of vision. For a detonation above the Midwest, that could mean the entire continental U.S.

No American would necessarily die in the initial attack, but what comes next is potentially catastrophic. The pulse would wipe out most electronics and telecommunications, including the power grid. Millions could die for want of modern medical care or even of starvation since farmers wouldn't be able to harvest crops and distributors wouldn't be able to get food to supermarkets. Commissioner Lowell Wood calls EMP attack a "giant continental time machine" that would move us back more than a century in technology to the late 1800s.

The Commission notes that little in the private sector is hardened to withstand EMP attack and that the military has only limited protection. After an EMP assault, the nation would be highly vulnerable to secondary attack by conventional forces or a biological weapon.

China and Russia have the capability to launch an EMP weapon--and have let us know it. In May 1999, during NATO's bombing of the former Yugoslavia, members of the Russian Duma, meeting with U.S. congressmen to discuss the Balkans war, pointedly noted that a Russian EMP attack would paralyze the U.S. China recently published an article on EMP in a Chinese-language technical journal. To make sure the U.S. got the message, the article appeared in English.

But it's a relatively unsophisticated EMP weapon in the hands of terrorists that really scares the Commission. All it would take is one nuclear warhead attached to a Scud missile launched from a barge off the U.S. coast to shut down much of the country.

The Commission offers a series of recommendations for reducing U.S. vulnerability. It calls for better intelligence, particularly in coastal waters. Also needed are "vigorous interdiction and interception efforts" such as missile defense. Critical components of civilian infrastructure--especially the electrical power grid--need to be EMP-hardened. Most new units can be hardened for 1% to 3% of cost if done at the time of design and manufacture. Hardening existing systems can cost 10 times as much.

The EMP study, which came out the same week as the 9/11 Commission's report, got little media attention. It deserves more.

[Guest LCPGUY]

Not much I could do except pray. Nope, I wouldn

[senerhu]

What if people tried to steal what you had for them to survive, would you defend yourself? That is probably what it would boil down to...

hey bro...

[truseek]

Compromise morals? Naw. I think God will always provide for His people. And if He were to choose not to, I do not see my life as so much more valuable than anothers as to be willing to purposefully injure or harm them in any way.

Laws? That may be another issue entirely. At what point can a gavernment be considered to be no longer in control, thus nullifying their laws?

I would be more than willing to share anythnig I had, but would definitely defend against any would-be thieves, that's just not cool.

Also, I think it is important to note that a nuke or any other incindiary device in entirely unneccesary to set of an EMP. EMP generators are relatively (extremely) simple machines, and cheap to build. I have known people who have built very small EMP weapons with ranges of about 100 yards or so. They could disable a car, helicopter, computer, etc. But gettin the juice for such a device isn't easy, not to say that China, Russia or anyone else could not get it if they wanted it. Thus, they could destroy all electronics without all that nasty radiation and property damage.

In Christ

Truseek

[Guest Called]

What if people tried to steal what you had for them to survive, would you defend yourself? That is probably what it would boil down to...

hey bro...

That is a very difficult question to answer...

[senerhu]

What if people tried to steal what you had for them to survive, would you defend yourself? That is probably what it would boil down to...

hey bro...

That is a very difficult question to answer...

Oh I agree...100%

[senerhu]

I have to admit, I would have a hard time watching my family suffer. If it were just me, I may be more pacifist, but where my family is concerned, I would probably be more protective. Protective not in an aggressive sort of way, but try to be more stealthy, if that makes sense. I would think that sharing would be the order of the day, but nobody would need to know exactly how much I had or where it was....

[Guest LCPGUY]

What if people tried to steal what you had for them to survive, would you defend yourself? That is probably what it would boil down to...

hey bro...

Yo... Bro,

Why blusheth yee???

John Buoy

[senerhu]

I don't think you would blusheth me at all, errr would you???

[Guest LCPGUY]

I don't think you would blusheth me at all, errr would you???

Huh??? I am totally lost here!!! No wisecracks now Bro even though I gave you a nice opening to do so. :P

John Buoy