- #1
Nebula815
- 18
- 2
Anyone Read "One Second After?"
I wasn't sure if this was the right forum for this thread or not, if not, then mods feel free to move to the appropriate forum; I figured it relates to national security and thus policy and hence "politics."
Anyways, so I just finished this book called "One Second After," basically it is about the United States gets hit with an EMP attack by a nuclear weapon launched off a container ship from the Gulf of Mexico and detonated high up in the atmosphere above the United States, causing an EMP that destroys all electronics in the United States. So "one second after," all cars stop functioning, electrical power grid is gone, all airplanes in the air crash as they are knocked out, etc...
Well as you can imagine, the book then describes the social breakdown that occurs. It is a very gut-wrenching story and I found it rather frightening.
The book of course claims that we are wide open for such an attack, and also names a report done by scientists on this subject, you can read about it at this website: www.empcommission.org [fixed .org].
So I was wondering from maybe any people who know some about this subject, could this be a threat, totally fantasy, or maybe a near-future threat, etc...I have been reading various opinions on the Web, some say only the U.S. and Russia have the capability to do such an attack, others say not so, and so forth.
I thought the book makes a good point, that many of the same statements made regarding it, such as it's "technically possible" but "highly improbable," "there is no real intelligence pointing to something like this and we must remain focused on near-term threats," etc...were made before the 9/11 attack occurred as well, and then we were all wondering how we didn't see it coming. But if such an EMP strike ever occurs, and is successful enough, it would likely destroy the nation, as a modern nation of 300+ million people cannot survive being thrown back into 19th century conditions instantly.
I have read some say that it is not true that the electrical grid couldn't stand up to an EMP strike, or at least that cars most likely would withstand it, the problem would be getting them gas if the power shut off (no gas pumps).
Here is the website for the book: www.onesecondafter.com
I wasn't sure if this was the right forum for this thread or not, if not, then mods feel free to move to the appropriate forum; I figured it relates to national security and thus policy and hence "politics."
Anyways, so I just finished this book called "One Second After," basically it is about the United States gets hit with an EMP attack by a nuclear weapon launched off a container ship from the Gulf of Mexico and detonated high up in the atmosphere above the United States, causing an EMP that destroys all electronics in the United States. So "one second after," all cars stop functioning, electrical power grid is gone, all airplanes in the air crash as they are knocked out, etc...
Well as you can imagine, the book then describes the social breakdown that occurs. It is a very gut-wrenching story and I found it rather frightening.
The book of course claims that we are wide open for such an attack, and also names a report done by scientists on this subject, you can read about it at this website: www.empcommission.org [fixed .org].
So I was wondering from maybe any people who know some about this subject, could this be a threat, totally fantasy, or maybe a near-future threat, etc...I have been reading various opinions on the Web, some say only the U.S. and Russia have the capability to do such an attack, others say not so, and so forth.
I thought the book makes a good point, that many of the same statements made regarding it, such as it's "technically possible" but "highly improbable," "there is no real intelligence pointing to something like this and we must remain focused on near-term threats," etc...were made before the 9/11 attack occurred as well, and then we were all wondering how we didn't see it coming. But if such an EMP strike ever occurs, and is successful enough, it would likely destroy the nation, as a modern nation of 300+ million people cannot survive being thrown back into 19th century conditions instantly.
I have read some say that it is not true that the electrical grid couldn't stand up to an EMP strike, or at least that cars most likely would withstand it, the problem would be getting them gas if the power shut off (no gas pumps).
Here is the website for the book: www.onesecondafter.com