Iran on the Offensive

Iran on the Offensive

Yves here. This post may seem a smidge wide of usual NC fare, but it caught my attention because it discussed electromagnetic pulse weapons. I’ve frankly been stunned at how little discussion there has been of then up to now. Anyone who has read Cryptonomicon, or merely has gotten a magnet too close to a computer is familiar with the concept: magnetic fields fry chips, and it is possible to create a device that can send a magnetic pulse over a distance. The technical details are way over my pay grade, but my understanding is that it would not be hard to construct an inexpensive device that could do a lot of damage to electronic infrastructure, which is a major point of vulnerability. If you think America is in a fraught position thanks to the Chinese stranglehold over rare earths, which enables them to dictate who gets first dibs on certain types of chips and advanced electronic components, think of what might happen in the wake of an EMP attack. I suspect they only reason this sort of threat hasn’t been the focus of a major action movie is that Hollywood is afraid of getting on the wrong side of the military-industrial complex.
By James Stafford, editor of OilPrice. Cross posted from OilPricehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/iran-on-the-offensive.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29