04.08.10

Cult of EMP Crazy: The Short Count pipes up about an unusually nuts story

Posted in Crazy Weapons, Extremism at 7:00 pm by George Smith

The last time we read of Washington Times’ columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave, he was writing about how neocon Dan Pipes thought Barack Obama could save his lost presidency. (This was before healthcare reform passed.)

Called the Short Count behind closed doors, if he is called at all, de Borchgrave wrote:

Mr. Obama is floundering as he tries to reset his presidency on economics. Defense is sacrosanct. Either taxes go up, or entitlements go down, or both. On Capitol Hill, it’s still burned toast for the president.

For centuries, leaders faced with insuperable domestic problems found escape in foreign distractions. In some cases, the distractions occurred suddenly and fortuitously, such as World War II, which started in Europe and pulled America out of the Great Depression.

President Obama isn’t looking for such a distraction, but others have no pangs illuminating what they think is the way out of the “clueless in Washington??? dilemma. Right-wing scholar-activist Daniel Pipes, a neocon icon, could not be more blunt: President Obama can “save??? his presidency by bombing Iran. The fact that this also could cost him the presidency is not deemed worthy of discussion

It was time to bomb Iran — actually, it’s always time to bomb Iran — because, as readers of DD blog know, the mullahs could send the US back to the time of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance via electromagnetic pulse attack.

But electromagnetic pulse attack is a wonderful tool of the extreme GOP right. If one must pause for an instant in warning about how Iran will attack the US with electromagnetic pulse, the empty time can be filled with a discussion of how WE can attack Iran with electromagnetic pulses.

And today, the Count writes of allegedly fevered discussion recommending the excellence of attacking Iran via electromagnetic pulse:

If Israel decided to explode an electromagnetic pulse weapon over Iran, the latest hot rumor in the blogosphere, and fry all electric appliances, including those at 27 nuclear sites, would Mr. Obama disown America’s closest ally? Such a high-altitude nuclear explosion would, inevitably, cause collateral electrical damage in neighboring countries, e.g., Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. The answer: A loud yes.

Maybe Israel ought not to do that, the Short Count seems to be thinking.

But where is this hot rumor in the blogosphere coming from?

As you may have guessed, it’s not so hot. It’s kind of cooled off year-old tea, in fact.

Writing at Human Events, the agency which publishes Ted Nugent’s various advices, someone “who was closely associated with former President Reagan for a number of years” (quite a recommendation) writes:

There is another alternative [to nuclear-armed Iran]. It’s called EMP for “electro-magnetic pulse??? …

Chet Nagle, a former naval intelligence officer and author of “Iran Covenant”, says that an EMP pulse is “much like a powerful radio wave.??? It would have an impact on a conductor of electricity and could knock out transmission lines, transformers and even power-generation stations.

As Nagle put it recently: “The easiest solution to the threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons program is an EMP strike. A nuke detonated 450 kilometers over Tehran at high noon on a sunny day would not even be noticed by the folks on the ground; however, their lights would go out and everything electrical would stop, including those enrichment centrifuges.??? He adds that, “a few aircraft could then drop commando teams in the resulting darkness, chaos and lack of communications and do whatever else needs doing. Iran then would be living in the late 19th Century.???

Remember: no radiation; no blast effect. A dividend could be that the “Greens,??? the democratic reformers, would seize power. If that were to happen, we and our allies could help the country recover from the EMP attack, with the nuclear enrichment facilities permanently shut down.

Yes, no doubt Iranians would be really happy to have Americans assist them after we and/or the Israelis detonated a couple low yield nuclear weapons high in the sky over their country. The rest of the world would be mighty impressed by our great exhibition of good will, too.

Anyway, who is Chet Nagle?

DD has the answer for you.

Another old white guy, one who’s been flogging a self-published novel, Iran Covenant, on how the US and Israel smash Iran after the latter goes on the attack, for about a year.

“My first novel will be on Amazon.com by 1 January 2009, at last, and the second follows as soon as the editing process is finished, the man writes here.

“Iran Covenant is the story of a clandestine attack on Israel by Iran – using a smuggled nuclear weapon – ending with non-nuclear strikes by Israel and the United States that destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The plot details how that could be accomplished without putting boots on the ground.”

That was thoughtful.

More recently, Nagle writes of an apparently enjoyable to him fictional attack on Iran by Israel from the POV of the Israeli prime minister here:

The prime minister knows the calculus well. First, he thinks, will be the salvo of Jericho III missiles. EMP from their nuclear warheads will destroy Iran’s electrical power grid, communications, television, radio, air defenses, and most of the industrial infrastructure. At noon the flashes will not even be noticed, so high there is no blast or radiation on the ground. Then cruise missiles from submarines for high value targets. They should save one for Ahmadinejad’s presidential palace. With chaos in the dark streets, maybe our commandos have time to open that Evin prison hellhole and let out the political prisoners. Those kids, that ‘Green’ opposition—they can deal with the mullahs if they like. And the best part, with the radar and air defenses inoperative, our air force can overfly Iran. They will finish the job with none of my boys lost, God willing …

“Afterwards, he thought, to show no hard feelings I invite President Obama to make a visit to Jerusalem,” Nagle continues. “If he comes I will make him a present. Perhaps a little framed photo from our satellite that shows such a peaceful Iran.”

What is the title of this musing?

Electromagnetic Pulse: The Answer to a Jewish Prayer.

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