Academic

SO IF SOMEBODY?S LAUNCHING MISSILES OFF OUR COASTS, AND IT?S NOT US, then it?s a threat to national ?

By Glenn Reynolds

SO IF SOMEBODY’S LAUNCHING MISSILES OFF OUR COASTS, AND IT’S NOT US, then it’s a threat to national security no matter what the Pentagon says. Plus, from the comments: “While it may have been a launch by the U.S. military, it raises the specter of the greatest single threat to the survival of the United States; namely, an EMP Attack that might kill all except 30 million Americans.”

Most likely explanation — something we did, or are okay with because it was an ally, or some sort of optical illusion making a jet contrail (perhaps from a high-performance military jet) look like a rocket launch. However, all other explanations are far from benign. And while an EMP attack probably wouldn’t be as bad as One Second After, it wouldn’t have to be nearly that bad to be very bad indeed.

UPDATE: A lengthy exposition of the contrail theory, with numerous photos.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader objects that an EMP attack wouldn’t kill anyone, because it would only destroy electronics. Well, not exactly. If the damage were as bad as set out in One Second After, with the electric grid destroyed and transport almost completely paralyzed, then it would kill a lot of people. That’s pretty much a worst-case scenario, and as John Walker noted in this post I linked a while back, the damage probably wouldn’t be nearly that bad, which isn’t to say that a lot of people wouldn’t die.

MORE: A confused response from NORAD. Well, that’s comforting.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on November 09, 2010 (boomark / email).