“Nuclear War: A Scenario”, by Annie Jacobsen, ISBN 978 05938 50671, 373 pages, (2024). This is a well-researched page-turner of a book with a lot of interesting information … but obviously written by a Far Left Californian female.
Her war scenario – for no apparent reason, North Korea launches a “Bolt from the Blue” nuclear attack on the United States. First, they launch a missile from North Korea, thereby alerting the US military that the Pentagon will be hit in 24 minutes time. Within those 24 minutes, while the DC Swamp Creatures still have their knickers in a twist over how to respond, a North Korean submarine pops up off the West Coast and lobs a nuclear bomb at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. While the chaos in the US is developing, North Korea explodes a nuclear satellite over the Continental US, causing an EMP pulse which brings everything electrical to a halt. (OK, let’s ignore the controversy about whether EMP weapons would be effective – it is a scenario).
The author is excellent in describing the military response procedures and the bureaucratic confusion that a surprise attack would cause in the very limited number of minutes for decisions. While the President is “radio silent” and the VP is unobtainable, bureaucrats waste precious time arguing about who should take the responsibility to be acting president.
The US retaliates by launching a limited nuclear strike against North Korea. Unfortunately, those missiles pass over Russia’s Kamchatka, raising Russian fears they are under a US nuclear attack. Because the US Administration has allowed communications with Russia to atrophy, there is no way to clear up the confusion. Believing they are under attack, the Russians launch their missiles at the US and EU; the US unloads its entire inventory in response. Then it is all over for Planet Earth because of the (still controversial) “Nuclear Winter”.
The author does an excellent job of demonstrating how quickly things would go pear-shaped in such a scenario because of each side’s “Use It or Lose It” driver, and of describing the devastation the nuclear weapons would cause. But her scenario makes little sense. What would cause North Korea to risk attacking in the first place, knowing the inevitable Mutual Assured Destruction response? If North Korea did decide to attack, why not use their unattributable EMP satellite weapon first, to disable the US before further strikes? Why use missiles at all, instead of hiring some Ukrainians in a yacht to sail the bomb up the Potomac?
And how would the US public react to a limited North Korean attack? The author describes the aftermath of the nuclear bomb on the Pentagon:
“… the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the US Departments of Justice and State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Treasury, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Metropolitan Police Department, the US Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Red Cross, Constitution Hall, to name but a few – they have been obliterated, shattered, blown apart, cracked open, knocked down, and set alight.”
How many Americans reading that list would sigh, and think – it is unfortunate about the Library of Congress.
The author is clearly under some Leftie delusions: “The function of NATO is to further democratic values and peacefully resolve disputes. NATO’s mission is to promote unity and cooperation …” That sentence would raise a chuckle in, say, Serbia or Libya … to say nothing about in Russia. Regardless – in a nuclear war, every NATO country gets destroyed.
The author concludes that “It was the nuclear weapons that were the enemy of us all. All along”. What? We should forget nuclear weapons and get back to good old fire-bombing cities, as in Tokyo and Dresden? Human beings fought wars for thousands of years before nuclear weapons were invented. Nuclear weapons cannot be un-invented, and even poor countries like North Korea are able to build them if they so choose.
The real conclusion should be that it is insane for Our Betters to provoke a war against Russia and to announce that China is their next target; instead, they should avoid entangling alliances, build defenses at home, and focus on maintaining cooperative relations with all nations. That is how to avoid war! And avoiding war (conventional, just as much as nuclear) is a worthy aim.
