The Night The Lights Go Out In Georgia
The Night The Lights Go Out In Georgia
By Jack Kinsella
Depending on what sources you check, the global population of the Muslim world is somewhere between 1.2 and 1.9 billion people.
It’s a big spread — the difference between the estimates is greater than the population of the US — but it also shows how little we really know about our enemy.
As the government keeps reminding us, not all of Islam is our enemy, and both logic and observation say that is true. There are lots of Islamic countries that aren’t fighting us, and even some who are fighting on our side.
Just as there are varying schools of thought in Christianity, ranging from the very liberal to the ultra-legal, so it is with Islam — the difference being the ultra-legal Christian would be the most harmless, whereas the ultra-legal Muslim is the most lethal.
The ultra-legal Christian would turn the other cheek, whereas the ultra-legal Islamist would seize the opportunity to cut his throat. But, as noted, not all Islamists are Wahabbi jihadists, anymore than all Christians are Amish.
But according to most estimates, about ten percent of global Islam shares the radical Islamic belief that jihad against Israel and the United States is a religiously-imposed duty.
Taking the lowest estimate of the size of global Islam, that means America is at war with a secret, faceless army of more than 120,000,000 fighters with forces in every country in the world, including the USA.
Homeland security is monitoring dozens of Islamic terror groups, from Hamas to Hezbollah to al-Qaeda, operating inside the US cities, including Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, and from Oregon to North Carolina, Florida to Connecticut, and all points in between.
Their numbers are relatively small, but September 11 demonstrated what damage a handful of suicide jihadists with the right plan were capable of inflicting. What keeps them pinned down is our technological edge.
If they make a phone call, we know it. If they make an unusual purchase we can flag and track it. If they make a suspicious financial transaction, we can trace it.
All this raw information is analyzed, and if a threat emerges, the next day we read in the newspapers about another thwarted terrorist plot.
America has some 2,000,000 active-duty military forces standing between our borders and the 120,000,000 or so foreign jihadists dedicated to our destruction. Thanks to our technology, our 2 million outnumber our enemy many times over in terms of the death and destruction we are capable of raining down upon them.
In 1991, Saddam commanded what was estimated to be the world’s fifth most powerful military force. American technology cut through Saddam’s army like a hot knife through butter in a matter of weeks.
By the time our technology was done with the world’s fifth most powerful military, it took US ground forces but 100 hours to mop up what was left.
But take away our technology and what is left is a US military of two million facing more than 100 million fanatical enemies. Two million men is nowhere nearly enough to fan out and defend America’s vast coastline.
Domestically, the standard ratio for police in major cities is somewhere between 50 and 100 citizens to each cop, depending on the size of the city.
Thanks to our technology, the cops always seem to outnumber the bad guys. But take away our technology, and it’s the Old West all over again. Our enemies, both foreign and domestic, know they can never hope to overcome our technological superiority.
It is our greatest strength. And our Achille’s Heel. Without it, we’d be easy pickings.
Assessment
On October 30, 2000, Congress established the EMP Threat Commission to assess US vulnerability to an electro-magnet pulse (EMP) attack to the United States Homeland.
An Iranian military policy paper entitled, “Electronics to Determine Fate of Future Wars” published by Nashhriyeh e Siasi Nezami back in 1999 shows Iran has been giving the military value of an EMP pulse serious consideration:
“Once you confuse the enemy communication network, you can also disrupt the work of the enemy command and decision making center.
Even worse, today when you disable a country’s military high command through disruption of communications you will, in effect, disrupt all the affairs of that country…If the world’s industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years…American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot.”
Note that the paper specified AMERICAN soldiers as the targeted enemy. Iran conducted a number of what were assessed as ‘failed’ tests of its Shahab 3 medium-range ballistic missiles in the late 1990’s. In July, 1998, US satellites picked up the mid-air explosion of a Shahab-3 over Iran.
Quoting GlobalSecurity.org,
“The rocket exploded or was detonated about 100 seconds into the flight, either because of a mishap or because the Iranians, satisfied with its performance, detonated it by remote control.”
Again, from the same source:
“Iran conducted a third test launch on 21 September 2000, but the missile apparently exploded shortly after liftoff.”
And again,
“Iran conducted an unsuccessful flight test of the Shahab-3 medium-range missile in July 2002.”
Each of these ‘failed’ tests ended at approximately the same altitude – between 180 and 200 miles above the earth.
According to the EMP Threat Commission, a single nuclear warhead detonated at that altitude over the east coast would fry every electronic device from southern Georgia to New York City and as far west as the Mississippi.
Cars would quit running. Water plants would shut down. Food delivery would grind to a halt. Mass communications would cease. Banking records would be wiped out. Millions would die of disease and starvation and the rest would wish they had.
An EMP attack would come without warning, and almost without notice. Most wouldn’t even notice the flash in the sky. There would be no noise, no fallout. It would seem like a normal power outage, at first.
Without any way to communicate, each community would assume it was a local event. It would take weeks before word got out that we were under attack.
By then, most of us would have exhausted what emergency supplies, if any, we had stored away, and would just be learning that there will be no more coming.
According to Frank Gaffney’s book, “War Footing”,
“Thousands of Scud missiles exist around the world, and they are said to cost less than $100,000 to purchase from willing suppliers like North Korea. (In December 2002, a North Korean ship was intercepted, temporarily, as it prepared to deliver twelve Scud missiles to Yemen.)”
Notes Gaffney,
“al-Qaeda has a fleet of freighters capable of launching a mobile SCUD. North Korea has threatened to sell nukes to terrorists. We need to start worrying.”
Indeed.
Originally Published: February 2, 2007.