The President of the Claremont Institute, Brian Kennedy, had an article published today in the Wall Street Journal. In it, he makes an important case for American missile defense. While we continue to dwell on the economic 'crisis' and its effects on American life, we need to think about a more serious, and looming, threat.
Think about these couple of points:
For the past decade, Iran -- with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea -- has been developing missile technology. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced in 2004 their ability to mass produce the Shahab-3 missile capable of carrying a lethal payload to Israel or -- if launched from a ship -- to an American city.
and
Let us say [an Iranian] freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.
This is what is referred to as an EMP attack, and such an attack would effectively throw America back technologically into the early 19th century. It would require the Iranians to be able to produce a warhead as sophisticated as we expect the Russians or the Chinese to possess. [Read on here.]
We are currently hoping the Iranians, et al, stay 'sane' and do not do this to us. On 9/11 we learned--what we should've known from history already--that there are bad people in the world intent on harming us. Hoping good things from bad people does not equate to a defense policy, it is naive, and will, someday, costs innocent people their lives.
Mr. Kennedy explains that America has the technology to prevent such attacks, but lacks the political will. Let us 'hope' that the new President will 'change' this.
Thomas More
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