Israel Matzav

Mortal threat

... One can only conclude this rather flaccid response to the prospect of a nuclear-armed, Islamofascist Iran reflects a sense the threat thus posed will be somebody else's problem. Certainly, it is a problem for Israel, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared should be "wiped off the map." But since many in the so-called "international community" have little more love than he does for the Jewish State (whether they admit it or not -- look at their anti-Israel voting record in the U.N.), the threat to Israel is unlikely to catalyze action against Iran's mullahocracy.

But what if Iran's nuclear weapons were actually intended to bring about one of Mr. Ahmadinejad's other stated objectives: "a world without America"? Would we indulge in still more talk-a-thons like those of the last two-plus years led by the European Union 3 (Britain, France and Germany) -- for which the Iranians have publicly expressed appreciation as "buying time" for their nuclear program?

In fact, there is reason to believe the Iranian regime is working toward a capability that could destroy America as we know it. A blue-ribbon commission's report to the Congress last year (http://empcreport.ida.org/) found a single nuclear weapon detonated in space high above the United States could unleash an immensely powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP). An EMP wave a million times stronger than the most powerful radio transmitter would damage or destroy the electrical grid and unshielded electronic devices upon which our society utterly depends. The effect (visualized in a short video available at www.WarFooting.com) could be "catastrophic" -- possibly reducing America from a 21st century superpower to a pre-industrial society in the blink of an eye.

Iranian missile tests -- including firing a Scud missile off a ship and flying the new Shahab 3 missile in a profile apparently designed to deliver a weapon into space -- suggest the mullahs seek an EMP capability. The sort of death and destruction such an attack might precipitate seem consistent with the apocalyptic vision of Shi'ite extremists, who believe such conditions the prerequisite for a messianic age ushered in by the arrival of the "12th imam."

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:19 PM