Hollywood getting something right

They say Americans get most of their information not from news reports but from entertainment programming.

This might not be a bad development, as it concerns one of the most frightening possibilities facing our nation in the immediate future.

On the catastrophic scenario of an electro-magnetic pulse attack on the USA, the news media have been AWOL. But Hollywood has recognized the beyond-scary potential of EMP – first with the remake of "Red Dawn," which seems to be playing out before our eyes with the North Korean threat, and secondly with the series "Revolution," which you can catch tonight and every Monday night on NBC-TV.

"Revolution" may be the best show on television. I'd put it up there with "The Walking Dead" and "Person of Interest." But as the second season of "Revolution" develops, we learn what caused massive deaths in the U.S., what plunged it into darkness, how renegade militias came to terrorize the population and why Americans no longer had electricity, computers, communications and transportation more efficient than horses.

It was an EMP event – in this case, one hatched by a rogue government employee in the Department of Defense on his own country for his own twisted purposes.

It might seem like an implausible scenario. But an EMP event of some kind is not. In fact, you might say it's one of those things that really a matter of "when" rather than "if."

A devastating EMP attack could be launched by a rogue state like North Korea or Iran. It could be launched by a sophisticated terrorist group with access to one nuclear weapon. And if could be launched by Mother Nature in the form of intensive and powerful solar flares like those expected this year and next.

The good news is that Americans don't have to be victims to EMP events. The devastating consequences of an EMP event are easily avoidable if Americans realize this is not science fiction; it's science fact.

That's why one of the most important books published in 2013 is F. Michael Maloof's "A Nation Forsaken: EMP – The Escalating Threat of an American Catastrophe." This book, released in January, is just now beginning to get some real media exposure. I think the initial obstacle it faced with the press is that what it exposes is so horrible, so unimaginable, so terrible and so frightening that the news media just didn't know what to do with it.

However, it is no longer unthinkable that a North Korea or an Iran – with just one nuclear weapon and the crudest delivery system for an overhead detonation – could effectively conquer the United States of America, setting it back technologically to the 19th century overnight, frying the electrical grid, downing airplanes, stalling cars and trucks and virtually eliminating modern communications.

Put yourself in the place of a North Korea or Iran: Wouldn't this be the card you would play with the hand you were dealt?

Put yourself in the place of al-Qaida: If you could get your hands on one nuclear bomb, what would you do with it? Would you set it off in New York City? Or would you buy a Scud missile for $100,000 on the black market and take out the entire country?

The first thing strategic thinkers do is put themselves in the place of their enemies – those who seek to destroy their country. What assets do those enemies have? What are their motivations? What do they have to lose?

When you make those calculations, you realize there are countries and organizations that have the means, motive and opportunity to destroy the U.S.

Where is "60 Minutes" on this story? Where are all the big news agencies? Are they incapable of seeing the handwriting on the wall? Do they not have the cognitive ability of Hollywood filmmakers and TV scriptwriters?

What I am telling you is the ugly truth about America's vulnerability to utter catastrophe can only be found in one place – in the pages of "A Nation Forsaken."