Thank God we got through the Bluenami period safely without a national disaster. But if such a person existed, there would be dozens of social media-savvy doomsday preppers ready to go. For weeks, and especially in recent days, media apps show The shelves that once held toilet paper and bottled water were empty. What led to emergency preparedness for ongoing power outages? As far as I can tell, this is a revelation of real, evidence-based, ongoing vulnerabilities colliding with the wild, hysterical fear-mongering of online personalities. Then panic spread through social media.
November 1, Tucker Carlson claim “Under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may launch a nuclear strike against Iran within days.” This absurd claim is the closest trigger to a series of scrambles to await the end of the world. But Carlson’s claims are pure fiction. U.S. Central Command maintains a largely defensive posture around the Strait of Hormuz, trying to keep oil flowing and occasionally responding to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacks on shipping. If President Trump approves a more comprehensive attack on Gen. Brad Cooper’s regime, the United States could strike a range of targets with conventional (non-nuclear) weapons. The use of weapons with nuclear yield would break the so-called nuclear taboo: it is widely believed that the use of nuclear weapons in war, especially in militarily defensible situations, would set a serious precedent and potentially have catastrophic effects. The primary purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons today is to provide the ultimate protection of the Republic by reliably deterring adversaries from attacking U.S. vital interests. All in all, if the United States deems it necessary to break the nuclear taboo, it will do so to defend U.S. vital interests rather than attack an already wounded (perhaps mortally wounded) Iranian regime without an air force or navy.
But Carlson’s alarmism doesn’t fully explain the behavior of doomsday preppers. Western democracies, including the United States, face ongoing cyberattacks. Some reports have reported this, and social media algorithms appear to have taken advantage of it. But vulnerability to cheap attacks, whether cyberattacks or drone attacks, is nothing new. What is new is the intensity of publicly reported attacks, especially in Europe.
Russia has magnified Its hybrid war campaign is designed to intimidate entire democratic Western societies in an attempt to eliminate all support for Ukraine. Russia has recently begun using food supply chains as a form of economic warfare. This week, supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden are Hackedpush the freezer temperature above 122 degrees Fahrenheit. it’s the same working method The October deployment targets French supermarkets, where there are more than 700 stores experienced Equipment failure and food loss estimated Tens of millions of euros.
These cyberattacks are not limited to Europe. In late August, there were at least six U.S. military commissaries where military personnel purchased food, continued Freezing failure. Affected facilities include Fort Huachuca in Arizona, FE Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Newport Naval Base in Rhode Island, Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, Travis Air Force Base in California and Fort Irwin in California. All of these instances bear the hallmarks of Russian hybrid warfare.
This week, after the election, the U.S. government release A new advisory recommends that the U.S. industrial refrigeration industry strengthen its defenses against cyberattacks. But again, there are no new, urgent recommendations for individual U.S. citizens to prepare for known, imminent threats. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has long advised citizens to remain vigilant and prepare for the possibility of power outages for several days. After all, natural disasters can strike as suddenly as hackers in Moscow. Likewise, the European Union has suggestion Citizens keep emergency supplies on hand 72 hours a day, and 33 countries on six continents have release Similar warning.
Domestically, the Pentagon launched FORTRESS, Require Military bases are capable of independent operation and maintenance for at least 90 days. This is a good, sensible, and overdue direction. This is no reason to be a doomsday prepper, and it’s certainly not a reason to panic. Regardless, stay calm and be prepared for a few days without power. And ask your elected leaders to defend our country and stand up to adversaries who would do us harm. But don’t panic, which means being highly skeptical of viral Internet phenomena.
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Rebecca L. Heinrichs is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and director of its Cornerstone Defense Program. She specializes in U.S. defense policy and focuses on strategic deterrence.