Statements out of North Korea and Iran last week confront the United States and other freedom-loving nations with a frightening prospect: Two of the world's most dangerous regimes are determined to wield nuclear weapons. North Korea's claim already to have 'nukes' came on the heels of an announcement by the Iranian mullahocracy that nothing will prevent it from realizing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Should we be worried? The short answer is absolutely. After all, these are two governments whose state policy is hatred for America. Nuclear weapons in the hands of megalomaniacal tyrannies who are animated by this hatred and who are armed with ballistic missiles poses a unique -- and intolerable -- threat. The danger is not simply the prospect one or more of these rogue states' nuclear weapons could be used to destroy an American city -- or perhaps an allied capital in the Mideast or Europe. Such an attack could be conducted by other means, with more prosaic delivery means such as trucks, ships or aircraft. A blue-ribbon, congressionally mandated commission recently described an altogether different sort of nuclear attack, one made possible by the detonation high above the United States of a ballistic missile-delivered weapon. The panel was charged with 'assessing the threat to the United States from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.' It concluded that the EMP effects of such an attack at altitudes between 40 and 400 miles above this country could so severely disrupt, both directly and indirectly, electronics and electrical systems as to create a 'damage level...sufficient to be catastrophic to the Nation.' Worse yet, the commission concluded that 'our current vulnerability invites attack'." --Center for Security Policy
