The Day After Disaster

At 2000 (10:00 PM) Tuesday, History International channel televised their 2 hour program called “Day After Disaster”. The scenario was a nuclear attack on Washington DC, which is envisioned a reality since it could totally disrupt our ability to govern. Other cities like New York are also likely targets.

Couple of points of interest. The program talks about establishing the continuity of government, since many in Congress and various department personnel would be killed. There is enough nuclear material available in the world to make 250,000 bombs. It is believed terrorist have access to nuclear weapons and are capable of managing/detonating them...just a matter of time before a nuclear detonation occurs in the U.S. Retaliation would provide the opportunity to eliminate rogue nations/terrorists. Retaliation decisions would probably be made within 30 hours. Nuclear/uranium components might come from various countries in an effort to deceive where they originated. The program talks about potential casualties from a 10 Kiloton weapon, and how we handle the chaos/casualties.

The program provided some nuclear fallout survival information. The program does not talk about long term survival resulting from overall chaos. Electronic magnetic pulse would occur in the detonation area, so planes would drop out of the sky and only analog items would work.  

Such an attack would change America forever. The program is well worth watching and will probably be on the History International channel again.

            --Geoff Higginbotham, MGen USMC (Ret.)