In the summer of 1988, I walked across a stage and received an acknowledgment of 9 months of study at the College of Command and Staff of the Naval War College in Newport, RI. Basically simultaneously, I was awarded an MA in International Relations from Salve Regina. About a year later, the 9 months spent at the NWC allowed my time in the seminars and writing papers to become an MA in Strategic Studies.

I left that institution, having studying warfare from the Ancient Greeks to the 1986 Gulf of Sidra Freedom of Navigation “exercise,” with an embedded belief that major world wars were just not going to be fought anymore. It had become clear to me, with my filters of reason, that wars had been fought to acquire resources, so the complete destruction of your enemy’s real estate and revenue generating entities, public and private, was not an option, maybe other than doing some “dynamic modifications” to make the point that you could.

The premise I had formed was based on people being materialistic beings, and all wanting to covet the neighbors “stuff.”

I had not bothered to factor in a glaringly obvious piece of the puzzle, it being a part of history I had not paid much attention, until these last few years, and that was the massive years of the Holy Wars in the Middle East several centuries ago.

It has become apparent that world wars are still a very real possibility, but, to break my personal paradigm, they will not (are not as the case actually is right now) about acquiring the resources another nation possesses: It’s now about enslaving the minds, or, as demonstrated regularly, destroying them physically over the issue of what the religion wants.

Don’t follow me? Read this article, which discusses the Iranian employment of Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapons, their basis being within the construction of nuclear weapons, which are specifically engineered to employ radio signals, and not blast effect, to achieve their destructive effect. read the article not to understand how the weapon works, but what it does.

To make is short and to the point, when one of these weapons goes off, the energy finds runs of wiring, from hi tension power lines, to the microscopic ones inside your computer and cell phones, and the interior wiring of your home, and induces electrical current via inductance. Net result: Power surges. Think about how lightning causes surges and destroys your expensive plasma TV and stereo gear. Magnify that to every electrical system around about a quarter of the globe (depending on the altitude of the detonation). All ability to deliver electricity is gone, literally in an instant.

That’s what Iran is aiming to do. Now, back to my naive thought about the primary goal of aggression is that of greed. In this case, it’s ideologically driven, and it’s all about Islam being the only political system. Political system? No typographical error there. It is a political system, with a religious component. When viewed that way, we can see it for what it is: A system designed to control the populace at all levels, not just the faith portion of a society.

Our problem? We have considered Islam a religion, rarely ever attributing to it the political component, which, is actually the predominant portion of the system it is. Therefore, we act as thought the practice of the “religion” is a free right of anyone, and specifically protected under the 1st Amendment of The Constitution of the United States. When another nation is ruled, as a political entity under Islam, we give it room as a freedom of religion concept, disregarding the fact it is the government within those national borders.

What benefit does Iran have in employing EMP weapons against the entire western world? It certainly eliminates the advantage of advanced technology at many levels, from the use of satellites to gather and process intelligence, to the production of even standard infantry weapons for the individual soldier, and the ammunition to go with them. Where we have ceased to rely on quantity over quality for the last several conflicts, and have become quite successful militarily operating in that regime, all of a sudden, we would be reduced to a middle age army, equipped with spears and pitchforks, and mostly those on the shelf. No ability to quickly move smaller units around to effectively manage the crisis, the local militias would become all encompassing of any person in decent to good health. That will even become problematic, as the supply chain necessary with have been rendered completely ineffectual.

Consider this: The Russians are assisting Iran in development of their “peaceful” nuclear power generating capability. They are selling them anti-aircraft systems, too. from my time in service, I recall hearing that the Soviets discovered the EMP component of nuclear weapons before we in the west had understood that effect. This article, I found quickly on the net takes it back to 1960, when the Soviets were known to understand the phenomena. Who is it working with Iran? Who has been historically shamed as a country by the United States? Yes, the mighty Soviet Union, which is re-emerging, to some degree, under Putin. They have begun making deployments into our hemisphere by major naval and air units. They have manged to maneuver themselves into controlling our logistics train into Afghanistan. It’s all sending a message. They will not bow to us, and they will step up the challenges as they are able. In this case, I project they will return to a prior strategy of using proxy opponents, such as North Korea, North Vietnam and now, Venezuela and Iran to get back at us for forcing them to dismantle their empire.

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Update 2/17/2009 PM:

My point with Iran/Islam goals:  With a single large EMP blast, or maybe one per coast, they could effectively reduce most of the nation to the 1700’s era in moments, and many, many millions of “infidels” will die at the hands of other infidels fighting over the last pre-packaged resources, and then many more from starvation, exposure and disease.  What’s left?  The infrastructure whill also be effectively destroyed.  While bulindgs and facilities may stand, the power grid will be damaged beyond the economic means of the current Third World economies, armed with EMP weapons, to restore it and use it to their advantage.  It will just become a waste land, and they can live in the MIddle East, free of anyone telling them democracy is a better way.  On the other hand, if it’s the new “bipartisan,” welfare dependant model going in place now, maybe they have a point, but at least the President never had anyone’s head cut off for disagreeing with him.

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President Obama has more than “tests” ahead, and soon. He will have real history changing choices to make as the leader of the nation. And decisions like this aren’t going to make us safer, it will just let the adversaries know, we’ll get rid of an ability to deter them. Not even the tried and true “mutually assured destruction” (which is almost negated by the base beliefs of Islam anyhow) will remain to maybe convince a few leaders to back down and make sane decisions.

To conclude:  I stand corrected, and I must say, I don’t like the outcome. World Wars will be fought, and not as we have seen them before, either.