Conservative Club
of Missouri
http://moconservatives.com/
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“A Dire Warning of What Might Be Our Future … and Our End”
Book Review by Georganne R. MacNab

ONE SECOND AFTER by William R, Forstchen (Tom Doherty Associates LLC, 2009,
350 pages, $24.95)

In One Second After, William Forstchen employs a fictional format to describe, in horrifying detail, the effects of the detonation of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon over the United States. The technology exists. Those who would unhesitatingly use it against us are out there. All this at a time when the Obama Administration proposes once again to reduce our investment in national defense.

Forstchen holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University with specializations in military history and the history of technology, is a faculty fellow and professor of history at Montreat College and the author of more than forty books.

In the introduction, Speaker Newt Gingrich writes: “Though this book is a work of fiction, it is also a work of fact…..I know this from personal study, across decades, of the very real threat to American security that is posed by this particular weapon…..There has been much attention given, since 9/11, to a wide variety of threats to our nation…..But few have talked about, let alone heard about the terrible, in fact overwhelming, threat of EMP.”

This book chronicles a prophetic story of one man’s struggle to save his family and his small North Carolina town after a terrifying weapon of unknown origin is detonated over Kansas, instantly sending the entire United States of America back to the Dark Ages. In time spaced snapshots ranging over 365 days, the devastating long-term effects of the disaster, such as starvation, lack of sanitation, disease and the unspeakable choices that must be made are illustrated. With no means of communication, neither the extent nor the potential duration of the devastation is known. Each community is forced to develop its own means of survival and to build a virtual “fortress” against roving gangs of barbarians.

In an afterword, Captain William Sanders, USN, one of the nation’s leading experts on the EMP, explains in some detail, using unclassified documents, how such a weapon works. Briefly, when a nuclear bomb is detonated above the earth’s atmosphere, it can generate a “pulse wave,” which travels at the speed of light, and will short circuit every electronic device that the “wave” touches on the earth’s surface, destroying its entire complex electrical grid and everything attached to that grid – electrical household services, medical facilities and devices, all telecommunications, computer equipment, cell phones, most transportation and delivery systems (land, sea and air) – everything.

This disturbing “story” forges a blueprint of what we could expect should such an attack take place and what we as a nation and as individuals must do to prepare for and to prevent such an occurrence. According to the experts, America’s strategic defense relies on credible nuclear deterrence. The book has already been recommended as a must read by Congress and widely discussed at the Pentagon. In this reviewer’s judgment, this is just one more compelling reason to ensure absolutely the election of those in positions to influence our national security who will stand firm in opposition to this Administration’s plans to substantially reduce – essentially eradicate – our defenses as a nation.