I don’t understand your argument. > A nuke detonated for this purpose would kill no one... directly. Yes. I’m aware of that fact. And that is why I fear an EM

I don’t understand your argument. > A nuke detonated for this purpose would kill no one... directly. Yes. I’m aware of that fact. And that is why I fear an EMP less than the alternatives. Don’t get me wrong. It would suck. But it would suck in a “gosh the economy just collapsed, and there is a good chance we will starve or freeze in the next few months/years” sense. Which is less bad than the alternative where they bomb cities and millions of people like you and me die in incredible agony hours/days after the bomb. And that is why i fear the second more. Things like where the hospitals are so overwhelmed that your burn treatment involves moving you to a field where your screams won’t bother others as much. Or a situation where we have to stop euthanizing mortaly wounded people because we run out of bullets (locally). > Is the fear overblown? I don’t know if your fear of the EMP is overblown. Probably not. I know my fear of a conventionally employed nuclear weapon is not overblown because we have the data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it is not pretty. I for one know which one I fear more and it is not the EMP. Of course this is all quite academic because by all chance they will choose to do both.