Bombing Iran Into an Islamic Stone Age -- Who'd Know the Diffierence?

Iran has threatened to destroy America, and has been frantically working to develop the type of nuclear missile technology which could throw the US back into a pre-industrial age. Both Iran and North Korea understand how easy it would be to detonate a nuclear warhead hundreds of miles above the US -- in outer space -- then sit back and watch American society implode. Both rogue nations are working to develop both the nuclear and the missil technology to achieve that feat.

But the irascible Spengler says that the US should not wait for Iran to collapse its electrical infrastructure. No, Spengler says the US should pre-empt Iranian plans, and do whatever is necessary to prevent the mad mullahs from making that one, last, fatal gesture:

Iran has terrorized the United States, and inevitably will acquire nuclear weapons — unless it’s stopped. At that point its terror capacity will multiply a thousand-fold, because its terrorists will operate under a nuclear umbrella. So the argument boils down to this: Iran is a terrorist state ready to murder American citizens and American allies all over the Middle East and around the world. Which means that we had better not stop them from acquiring nuclear weapons, because then they might be mad at us, and hurt us. What does that imply about what a nuclear-armed Iran might do?

... keep in mind that Iran is a dying nation. As I report in How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too), Iran is suffering the fastest fertility decline on record, any time, ever. The average Iranian has six or seven brothers and sisters, but will have one or two children. The population pyramid will invert: within a single generation, it will go from having 7 children to take care of elderly parents, to just 1.5. And in a country where the average person has $4000 to spend per year, that means starvation. The Iranian leadership knows it. They’ve been screaming about it in public for years. Like Hitler, they think they have one last chance at empire before the curtain comes down. If they’re not stopped, millions of Americans might die. _PJMedia

Rather than decapitation strikes against Iran's leaders, or deep penetration bombing strikes against Iran's nuclear infrastructure, some have suggested that the US should use EMP on Iran, to throw the nation back into an "Islamic stone age." Yes, "Islamic stone age" is a redundant phrase, granted. And it is possible that no one would even notice the difference.

But Iran's international terrorist proclivities are enabled by its energy wealth, and knocking out the ability of Iran to get its energy to market would certainly cut the legs out from under the ability of Iran to export terror and mayhem.

But if the more enlightened world were to use EMP against Iran, it would be better not to use a nuclear variety of EMP weapon, but rather one of the more advanced conventional EMP weapons. Such weapons could be mass produced, pre-placed, and timed to knock out selected electrical and electronic infrastructure. Alternatively, they could be unleashed from cruise missiles or drone aircraft.

When combined with advanced energy beam weapons, such an attack could effectively "decapitate" the mad mullahs' ability to commit mischief abroad.

Oil prices would naturally shoot up, which would upset the already-shaky economies of Europe. Iranian allies such as Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Gaza, and Venezuela would likewise be upset at the loss of revenues and the loss of a useful cat's paw.

But if the possible EMP threat from Iran is to be taken seriously, one must weigh all the options for a possible response.

Once the EMP djinn is let out of the bottle, there is no telling where it might stop. We like to assume that advanced societies could rebuild their infrastructures within a year or two, but that is assuming that somewhere in the world an advanced infrastructure willing and able to supply their replacement transformers and other massively expensive replacement infrastructure, has survived attack. That is an unlikely bet, once the dogs of EMP war are unleashed.