The Sputnik of the coming age...

I am a child of the Cold War, as are many of my readers. Many people point to the erection of the Berlin Wall, or the detonation of the USSR's first nuclear test as key factors in the start of the Cold War, but there is one moment in history that well and truly launched the Cold War. That moment was the launch of Sputnik 1. Sputnik was not important because it was the first launch of a man-made satellite, it was important because the Soviets proved that they now had the capability to lob a nuclear warhead to any point on the globe, in under an hour, and do so without any warning or way of stopping it. It pointed out our vulnerability to attack from "The High Ground", space. Fortunately, despite Khrushchev's empassioned outburst, the Soviet leadership were fundamentally a rational people who did not want to run the risk of losing everything they had, including the lives of their loved ones, so they never stepped up to the brink of mass murder-suicide. The same cannot be said for all of the world's nuclear powers. North Korea and Iran are led by leaders that are quite simply, insane. North Korea has an estimated 8 nuclear warheads, and has successfully tested a low yeild device. (We think. It is possible that this was in fact a larger yeild weapon set off in a large underground cavern to "muffle" the shockwave generated.).North Korea's Taepodong-2 missile, the missile expected to be used in it's upcoming "satellite launch" has a range of about 6,700 kilometers with a payload of around 750 lbs. This is plenty of payload and range to put a EMP weapon into LEO. This missile is an advanced two stage version of the missile that Iran launched in February. It is widely thought that Iran and Pakistan have been collaborating with North Korea on both missile and nuclear weapons technology for some time.

Why is this an issue? Because a belligerent nuclear power does not need to blanket the US with city busters to hurt us badly. They can do the job with as few as one nuclear weapon.

Can you imagine what would happen to this country if every single solitary electronic device suddenly stopped working? Tens of Millions would die, not from radiation, but from easily treated medical problems that require a functioning modern medical system, or from chemical poisoning from malfunctioning petrochemical plants. or from a lack of basic sanitation. Transportation would stop because fuel supplies would vanish when cross-country pipeline systems shut down and engine control systems would fail. Airplanes would fall from the sky when their avionics systems failed. Power plants and power grids would fail causing massive blackouts. People would die from either heat exhaustion or freeze to death in thier unheated or un-air-conditioned homes. Then the second wave of deaths would occur due to the sanitary systems being overwhelmed with rotting corpses, rotting food, and contaminated water.

Think about that when our leaders want to "talk" to our enemies instead of acting in this country's best interest.