Optipessimist View: What Is The Greatest Threat To The United States?
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This story post is in response to @thelastsage's Pessimist or Optimist??? Where does your future lie... Contest!!!
The greatest threat I see facing the United States is the takedown of our electrical grid via Electromagnetic Pulse(EMP) using a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the United States or a cyber attack. The main culprits I feel to be the perpetrators of this act would be either Russia or North Korea. There are of course other possibilities such as Iran or a rogue actor.
Why Russia and North Korea?
I don't claim to be an international politics guru. I do know the United States is pissing a lot of countries off in the world and it's only a matter of time before one of them responds. I often wonder if a response will be a case of "You can only poke the bear so long before it finally gets angry and mauls you."
“The USA prefers to follow the rule of the strongest and not by the international law. They are convinced that they have been chosen and they are exceptional, that they are allowed to shape the destiny of the world, that it is only them that can be right. They act as they please. Here and there they use force against sovereign states, set up coalitions in accordance with the principle: who is not with us is against us.”
-Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin
"It is not the DPRK but the U.S. and Trump that makes problems. I say this because Trump tweeted that the DPRK, North Korea, is looking for trouble and it's none other than the U.S. that is posing threats toward the DPRK with the largest scale ever military exercises (with South Korea) and the nuclear aircraft carrier Carl Vinson which was bound for Australia is now coming back to the Korean Peninsula...We will go to war if they choose."
- North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol
Why the concern over EMP or cyber attack?
I've been looking into the possibility of these two scenarios for a while. Recently, EMP Commission Chairman Dr. Vincent Pry wrote an article on The Hill claiming an EMP detonated over the USA could kill "9 of 10 Americans by starvation and societal collapse". These are the professionals putting out these numbers, not me. While some argue this number to be way off base, what's considered accurate? 20%? 30%? That's still a lot of damn people.
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In regard to cyber attacks, The Department of Energy released a report titled Cyber Threat and Vulnerability Analysis of the U.S. Electric Sector in August of 2016 in which it acknowledges there are "threat actors on multiple fronts continu(ing) to seek to exploit cyber vulnerabilities in the U.S. electrical grid".
Other news in regard to EMP and cyber attack.
- In a 2004 report the EMP Commission warned of “certain types of relatively low-yield nuclear weapons can be employed to generate potentially catastrophic EMP effects over wide geographic areas, and designs for variants of such weapons may have been illicitly trafficked for a quarter-century.”
- The US-Korea Institute At John Hopkins reports a balloon-lofted warhead detonated at 30 kilometers altitude could black out the Eastern Grid that supports most of the population and generates 75 percent of US electricity.
- An April 2008 report by the EMP Commission regarding critical infrastructure acknowledged "failure within one individual infrastructure may not remain isolated but, instead, induce cascading failures into other infrastructures".
- On December 23, 2015, the Ukranian Power Grid was hacked and left 230,000 residents in the dark. Recent revelations suggest the malware used in the attack "includes swappable, plug-in components that could allow it to be adapted to different electric utilities, easily reused, or even launched simultaneously across multiple targets" and even the United States is at risk.
- The United States had 12 nuclear power sites breached by hackers as recently as Thursday.
If I believe one of these scenarios can happen in my lifetime what am I doing about it?
Am I running around and thinking "Damn, we're screwed" or am I doing something about it?
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For the past few years, I have been learning how to accomplish tasks the way they were accomplished before electricity became mainstream. The Foxfire series is my main "go-to" for learning "back to the land" ways of harvesting and preserving food. Additionally, the books cover a range of topics to achieve overall self-sufficiency.
Living on the edge of Appalachia, I have been increasing my social circle by connecting directly with the "old timers" to learn what life was like when they were younger. Last summer, I had an 80-year-old husband and wife along with their 96-year-old mother teach me how to plow a field for a garden with a manual field plow. Throughout the summer I was taught tricks on how to keep animals away, fight off insects, and how to grow organically.
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I could keep writing on what I have been learning and preparing to combat the possible threat of EMP or cyber attack on our electrical grid, but the point of this story post is to identify what I see to be the greatest threat to the United States and whether or not I view my future as an optimist or pessimist.
Overall, I am optimistic that I can take measured responses to counter this possible threat. In the meantime, my family is eating healthier food, investing in real money(as much as I love crypto, it won't be much help if the grid goes down), and getting much-needed exercise by accomplishing tasks the manual way. We don't live in fear, but are actually improving our lives by remembering to take the time to disconnect ourselves from the fast paced life of the grid.
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If you enjoyed this post, please upvote and follow if you desire! I mostly story post about my sobriety, family, effects of war, and the crazier parts of my life. However, if it interests me I may just Steem about it! Steem on Steemians!
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North Korea is more a threat to South Korea. The US is a major threat to N. Korea. The US needs to back down and stay way from the waters of North Korea. How can we say a country can't have nukes when the US has enough to destroy ever city on earth. It's time for better understanding and diplomacy with countries like North Korea, think of the people, good innocent people.
First, I do address the issue of the United States meddling with North Korea and nukes with this quote.
Secondly, the major issue the world needs to focus on in regard to North Korea is the humanitarian crisis that is rampant there. The country runs extermination camps, has no religious freedom, or free press. It enslaves, tortures, imprisons and murders its own people as a way to silence dissent.
You know something is wrong in a country when it focuses more on Nuclear development rather than infrastructure. Look at North Korea on a map at night.
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Nice post, i will follow your account, please follow me !
Great post my friend! I love how much you put into your posts and how you are always willing to help give back in this community. I love the FoxFire series and first started reading them around age 11. My father was a Vietnam vet and had/has some pretty harsh outlooks on our future. I try to always find the middle ground/balance to all situations but always like to look at all options/opinions. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to write this and look forward to all of you stuff.
Peace,
The Last Sage
Hey, you are welcome. I thought I would be a much quicker response but life was crazy the past couple of days. This story post has been open on my computer for days and i think I may have gotten a case of writer's block around July 4th. I can't tell you how many times I rewrote this, lol.The Vietnam Vets can be really interesting. As much as Iraq sucked I think about those guys in the jungle and how rough they had it. Thanks for letting me know that little tid bit.
Solid post @lexikon082!
I love the positive spin you put on the real possibility of an EMP by going back to farming basics. We still have a lot to learn from our elders.
Thanks @lydon.sipe. I'll never forget the time the deer were ravaging our garden. The elder male who was helping us told me to "go and pee around the garden". I thought he was joking. He was dead serious. Let's just say I waited until sundown about once a week. But it really did keep the deer away.
Lol! That is what I call claiming your territory. It always amazes me the simple advice we hear from our elders - they tried the hard ways already.