Posted: 15 January 2018 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 2
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There is a subtle distinction between reporting a blizzard coming in three days and a nuclear attack in thirty-eight minutes. If my local weather broadcasters show something on the eleven o'clock news about a bad storm system coming our way, we have enough time to evacuate (if it's bad enough), to stock up if we're going to ride it out, or to say, "Oh, four inches? I better put away my sandals, then." (Well, this IS Greater Cleveland. Carolinians, Georgians, Virginians, etc. will react differently.) There's no need for quick verification with some other agency or reporting venue to confirm; while it could be deadly, time is not of the essence, and we are used it it; we can handle it.
There has never been a nuclear attack on U.S. soil - and realistically, the U.S. is so isolated that it's much harder to attack than, say, Russia attacking the U.K. So we might be somewhat inured to it, although the events of 9-11 show us that we're are definitely NOT immune.
But a ballistic missile attack is not a terrorist act; it is an act of war. Since the U.S. happens to be at diplomatic pseudo-collapse with a nuclear power, ANY such warning has to be considered deadly serious and for-real until it can be verified or not-verified. And on the same hand, because of the realistic chances of such an attack, ANY report should be verified before an alert is triggered.
To this end, an alert should not be able to released until it is confirmed by a reliable agency and then verified by two people who release that alert. One person should not be able to hit a button and issue the alert. This is the fault of the system in Hawaii. Imagine if, after President Reagan's comment to a "dead" mike that NORAD had taken it seriously.
The system MUST be verifiable unless the emergency is so dire that a warning will cause less damage than a non-warning. Submarine launched missiles might allow two or three minutes' warning (and at that, I might be generous.) That's a crisis that needs an immediate alert.
I'm no expert on this, but it seems kinda obvious to me that we need such situations confirmed before we release public warnings.
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