Satan's Rapture

Another public service announcement from the Hard Starboard Radio Network:

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

On February 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 forty-five 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.....

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% 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. [emphasis added]

And to think that when I argued for an Iraq-style, regime-changing pre-emptive invasion of Iran six years ago, commenters and emailers called it "madness".  Instead, the Bushies went the weak-assed diplomacy route, and now Red Barry is not only doubling down on it, but seeks to mothball our anti-missile defenses as well.

THAT is the true madness.  And the most frightening part is, there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

Hey, nobody ever said PSAs can't be buzz-killers.