Iran's One Small Satellite, One Giant Leap In Military Technology

Iran announced that it had successfully launched its own satellite into orbit. This development should give President Obama's Administration, Israel and the Europeans cause for concern. For Iran, this is one more step in their search for obtaining the ability to launch offensive ballistic missiles and place weapons into space.

Though their ballistic missile program does not threaten the U.S. in the short term, it should cause those in the Middle East and Europe great concern. Once a missile exits the atmosphere it becomes a long range weapon and can be directed to targets thousands of miles away. With the help of basic GPS these missiles can be quite accurate, especially if they are nuclear tipped. All one has to do is take a world map with Iran at its center and draw a circle with a 6,000 mile radius and see what impact this would have.

The immediate concern to the U.S. comes in Iran's ability to put a satellite into orbit. With this ability, Iran would be capable of causing havoc with the West's, and most notably the U.S.'s satellite communications and surveillance systems. The U.S. rely s heavily on these systems to communicate with our armed forces around the world. At the very least, Iran would be able to develop hunter/killer satellites to disrupt and destroy these vital satellites. A more aggressive approach would be the positioning of an Electromagnetic Pulse weapon above the Continental U.S. An EMP is a small nuclear device when detonated above the atmosphere produces a massive burst of electrons. These electrons will damage non hardened electronic devices. Not only will it destroy your ipod, home computer and automobile electronics it will completely devastate the North American power grid. You seen what happened in New Orleans when vital systems collapsed, can you imagine what chaos would ensue if these services collapsed across the entire country?

Would Iran, or for that matter any other country, dare such self destroying acts? That possibility always exists, especially when dealing with leaders that are unstable and see themselves as the underdog worshiped by millions. Before any of you want to tie my last sentence to any American President, let me state that this is a virtual impossibility due to the safeguards our military has in place. Many other countries, especially those that are radical in nature, do not have these safeguards and pose a "clear and present danger". It will be very interesting to see how President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton deal with this new development.