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May 24, 2005

Blogbat Publicitus:

Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar Day 2

 

 

Today was spent on the Hillsdale information lifeboat with four very distinct and interesting characters: A professor, a research academician, a Paul Revere and a super-cop.

 

Day two got underway early with Larry Arnn’s professorial discussion of the value of wartime statesmanship. Though he rambled a bit, as professors often do, the main point this fan of Winston Churchill was conveyed clearly: without American values (human rights and dignity transcendent far beyond the scope of human law and empowered by the strength of moral clarity and authority), Americans could not have ever hoped to have come so far. Malise Ruthven, on the other hand offered us a more detailed description, as academicians who love research often do of our antithesis and the failing foundries from which it arises. Malise described the form of insanity that comes about when a person holds an unrealistic utopian ideal to which he will stop at nothing to force the world to conform. This, as he points out has been the case in the last century for Nazis, Fascists, Communists and of course Islamofascists. Such an ideal turns a normal German nationalist in the 1930’s into a card-carrying member of the National Socialist Workers Party, for example. He also paid close attention to the meaning of “fundamentalist” as it has been adopted and used in the media in recent history.

 

After breaking for lunch, we assembled once again to hear whether this time instead of the British, the Islamofascists (or Communists) were coming and whether they would come bearing an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) device, capable of completely disrupting modern technology-driven life as we know it. Frank Gaffney Jr. did a superb job of touching on the key areas of concern relating to an EMP event. He first discussed its most effective detonation point and then moved on to defining the three waves within the pulse that would effectively fry personal electronics and power grids. Noting then that such an event would effectively relegate the United States to 19th century undeveloped status, he quickly pointed out it would be also without the benefit of 19th century infrastructure. Cities would be unable to sustain their populations, transportation would be largely unavailable to carry these populations to the country and farmers would watch their crops rot. The point was and is very clear: we must harden our technological infrastructure and it must be a top priority. But in addition to what Mr. Gaffney recommends, I would simply add that those wise among us should also be making some sort of consideration for a short-term low-tech existence in the event an EMP should occur before we are sufficiently hardened or another threat has a similar effect. It has honestly concerned me for some time that we have made some of our most vital things so reliant on electronics even when it was not always necessary. This applies to our military as well. We should be able to still fight even if the enemy turns out the lights – which will be one of the first things a major enemy in battle will attempt. The Soviets of course worked on EMP technology for years before their collapse (and as Frank shockingly pointed out, several scientists who worked on that project then went over to North Korea where they live today). China as well as Iran and certainly Al Qaeda would certainly have a place for this technology and China is additionally working on a strategy (as is North Korea) for taking out our military satellites which would effectively blind much of our operations. And what if such a country were to launch a satellite intended to disperse an EMP over North America? Of course, our biggest concern at the moment is that a rogue ocean barge will fire one of those ubiquitous scuds or an airplane over our airspace and detonate a nuclear payload, causing an EMP event. But the thing I have to ask is why does it take a Frank J. Gaffney Jr. to point this out? Isn’t this just common sense? Give bad man spear, bad man use spear on good man, good man die. Bad man can’t find spear, use rock.

 

We wrapped up the day with R. James Woolsey. Truly a man of many hats, his forceful and plainspoken speaking style caused me to imagine an intellectual cop, if such a thing exists (though he also seemed to have a softer side for public lauding). Woolsey of course drew comparisons between Islamofascism and Nazism, both respect to outcome and the breeding grounds which foment such things. He rightly points out that America has had a history of sending the wrong message to our enemies who inevitably attack us because they have fallen into the belief that we are weak and wince at conflict – though Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto, who was well-acquainted with the American experience after having studied here, knew that Japan would not come out too favorably after the US war machine began to churn. With respect to our previous wars, Woolsey considers this war more similar to the Cold War than World War II, both in duration and in strategy. But I suppose this only depends on the relative size of a given flashpoint.  

 

This was an interesting and enjoyable seminar and I’m thankful to Hillsdale College for providing these speakers along with some fantastic food and company. Yesterday I nearly ran out of business cards and met so many fine, wonderful people (today I came prepared with twice as many cards in my pocket). I was also impressed with the number of home school families present, their children preparing to attend Hillsdale or already attending. What a wonderful resource this event, as well as the school are for these families. During the course of my time I also learned that the children of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers were home schooled before attending Hillsdale. One of his daughters in fact recently graduated the college among the top 5 of her class. Not bad for an Air Force brat by any stretch!

 

For those interested in receiving full copies of the speeches from this week's event, contact Hillsdale College which may make available written copies or video at some point. These speeches are also often included in the school's magazine Imprimus available via free subscription or online.

 

Related:

 

Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar Day 1

March 30: Details of the National Leadership Seminar in Dallas

 

For further information on EMP:

 

EMP Commission Report Executive Summary: http://empcreport.ida.org

Washington Times Op-Ed: National Paralysis

 

 

 

Posted by Martin at May 24, 2005 09:26 PM

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