A nuclear war expert who claims we are moving closer to atomic war says it would take 72 minutes to wipe out five billion people if the worst happened.
Connecticut-based investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen, a New York Times bestselling author and 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, joined Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast to show how close we are to nuclear war.
Since she began writing her book Nuclear War: A Scenario in 2020, she has said: “The geopolitical temperature of the world has reached a point that you have never seen in your life and that I have not seen in my life. »
In the month his book was published, Russian President Putin introduced nuclear weapons into Belarus, saying it was a precautionary measure for “anyone who plans to inflict a strategic defeat” on Russia .
Annie said: “If a nuclear exchange happens – and we’re talking about strategic ballistic missiles – it won’t stop until the end of the world and we’re talking seconds and minutes not days, weeks and months.”
Nuclear war expert Annie Jacobsen, from Connecticut, US, revealed that we are getting closer to atomic war on The Diary of a CEO podcast.
Annie, who interviewed former defense secretaries, a former nuclear deputy commander and a former cyber chief, revealed that they all said: that “the nuclear threat is still there.’
She said: Under the previous administration, former President Trump, there was this presidential rhetoric, you may remember – the fire and fury of Trump and the leader of North Korea threatening this kind of things. And as many, I’m sure, began to wonder, “Gosh, what if deterrence, another word for prevention, fails?” and that’s the question I asked all these sources in the book.
The investigative journalist then explained that the President of the United States the only presidential authority to launch a nuclear weapon.
What did she say does this mean? It’s exactly like that sounds, it’s “presidential solo”. It’s the POTUS authority. He doesn’t need to ask anyone for permission, not the SEF, not Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Staff, not Congress.
Explaining why this power would be given to one person, she explained: “Iit must do with the countdown.
“An ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) moves one continent next one in about 30 minutes carrying a nuclear warhead to strikeobjective.
‘TIt’s only been 30 minutes, it’s not the case like, “Hey guys, should we go have a war in Iraq. Let’s discuss it, debate”, this is: “There is a ballistic signal Sir, a missile is coming to the United States and you must act” and that is why, in the simplest lay terms, unique presidential authority exists.
New York Times bestselling author and 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie joined Steven Bartlett (pictured) on The Diary of a CEO podcast about how close we are to nuclear war.
Since she began writing her book Nuclear War: A Scenario in 2020, she said: “The geopolitical temperature of the world has risen to a point that you have not seen in your lifetime and that I have never seen before. not seen in my life. »
Annie revealed that she wanted to write the book because people have become complacent about the threat of nuclear war and some don’t even know what it would mean for their lives.
She says: “I wanted to show in horrific detail how horrific and apocalyptic a nuclear war would be because I think many people have forgotten, or initially don’t know, the consequences of a nuclear exchange.”
Annie information obtained from the defense department documents and defense scientists to be able to determine precisely what happens during a nuclear attack.
She said: ‘On at the top of the initial flash of thermonuclear light, or 180 million degrees, which catches everything on fire in nine miles diameter radius; above the bulldozer effect of the wind and all the buildings that goes down and other fires ignite in addition to radiation poisoning people to death in minutes and hours and days and weeks, if they have any survived, on top of all that, each of these fires creates a mega fire which is 100 square miles or more and so on.
The author said that if the world went into nuclear war, you would “want to die instantly” because “there is no more law and order.”
She said: “There is a According to a quote from Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: “After nuclear war, survivors envy him dead”.
‘Wwho has left ? It is the man who returns to the most primary and violent state as a people fight for the tiny resources that remain, and besides they are all malnourished, everyone is sick and most people lost everything and everyone they know. How are you feel?’
Elsewhere, Annie revealed that North Korea had launched more than 100 ballistic missiles over an 18-month period starting in 2022. Although these are tests, she said other countries inform each other when they will carry out tests so that it does not cause anxiety or confusion.
She said: “North Korea does not adhere to this. All this command and control is focused on the question, “Is this coming our way?” North Korea do not announce these tests and therefore imagine the anxiety that reigns in these command bunkers with each ballistic missile launch.
“It’s so dangerous and so thuggish. On with one hand I say there are no rules for nuclear war, but there are some rules for nuclear deterrence, as you tell your neighbors.
If a nuclear war broke out, Annie said the safest place would be Australia or New Zealand because of the agricultural resources.
She said: “Agriculture would fail and when agriculture failed people would die and on top of that there would be radiation poisoning because the ozone layer would be so damaged and destroyed that you won’t be able to stay out in the sun and people will therefore be forced to live underground, struggling for food everywhere except New Zealand and Australia.