Of the many, many posts I've read on the y2k issue, I've yet to see one that promotes awareness to what could be the most devistating aspect of this problem.

Whether real or imagined the y2k issue will impact our lives, and could alter them forever. But far more catastrophic is the fact that a maniacal dictator from a foreign country could use the disruptions that y2k will surely cause, to bring about the destruction of our entire country.

On GN "Launching New Forums" I posted a reprint from an AP article outlining how the russians have already in place, a plan to asassinate all the top leaders of our country, utilizing expeditionary forces that are already here.

And that they've developed suitcase size nuclear weapons, which may already be in place in this country. Whether this is fact, or simply propaganda, I don't know.

From what we've read on these forums regarding the possible disruptions to the power grid, government systems, tansportation, etc. we can surmise that at the very least, people in the cities will panic, riot, loot, and create general chaos. (If they do these things when a sports team wins a championship, I don't think they'll have any qualms about doing it when a welfare check, or food stamps do not arrive in the mail)

Thus putting a tremendous strain on law enforcement and drawing attention to internal problems.

I would also think that Boris Yeltsin, Saddam Hussein, and Moammar Khaddafy are also paying very close attention to the potential for disaster here, and could very probably see y2k as an opportune time to finally rid the world of the great Satan (us).

Their respective countries don't rely nearly as much on computer systems as we do, so to them it will probably be business as usual.

To argue, and debate whether y2k in itself will cause major problems or not is certainly not the real issue.

The real issue is whether someone else will use y2k as a means of destroying us.

-- George (gwhite@usa.net), July 10, 1998

Answers

Finally... someone thinking outside the box. Does the USA have any enemies that would like to see us destroyed and be willing to help the process along? YES!

Is this scenario realistic? YES!

Get ready for an "interesting" few years, everyone.

P.S. I already know I'm a D&G nutcase, so there's no need for any of you to confirm that:-)

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), July 11, 1998.

If you do not belive Y2K will be a problem, good for you. If you do belive Y2K will be a problem, good for you. The ultimate answer is, no one knows what will happen, will something happen, YES. The degree of impact is unknown.

Will computers worldwide be impacted, yes. To what degree, unknown. I would never force my ideas upon anyone. I leave it up to everyone to make their own decisions.

As a programmer with 11+ years of experience, I see the potential for problems. To what degree, unknown.

I have personally been dealing with this issue as a programmer for 2+ years. If you do not believe this issue will cause problems with software, you are not informed. Will it cause problems with all software, no. I wrote a application 8 years ago for a customer, the application demanded century included on all date fields. It was a historical tracking app. Then again I modified a info. tracking system 2 years ago, and I could not convince the management team to spend the extra $ to fix the date issue. Since I get paid to do what I am told, I did exactly that. They called me 2 months ago and asked me to fix their Y2K issue and I was forced to decline due to current commitments. I did not say anything near what I wanted to say. I have developed a very cynical attitude to this issue. I have people who own PC's and have no programming training tell me that this is not an issue. Fine, I quit. I will fix it where I am currently employed and will attempt to help no others. Any programmer worth a pound of salt could tell you if you have a problem for 1 days of consulting fee's. Small price to pay.

I have provided my services to small companies for little or no charge. On Saturdays, at night, and whenever it fits their schedule. I still have yet to find 1 company that this issue will not impact is some way.

I provide advice to families at no charge for advice on simple preparations. These preparations are taken from years of hunting, camping, backpacking experience, and from the FEMA manual. Simple earthquake or natural disaster preperation will put you way ahead of the curve. Everyone remembers the bell shaped curve.

I make no claims to have all the answers. Time and time again someone points out, "If I am right you are in trouble, If I am wrong, so what!"

Have a nice day,

j

-- j (yada@yada.com), July 11, 1998.

As soon as I heard the mantra Prepare for the worst, hope for the best I knew what the worst in this situation would be...nuclear weapons. Its not hard to imagine that with the worlds defenses half blind, and all confused for several months, that the unthinkable would become thinkable in both in offensive and defensive strikes. Too many people hate each other that much. India and Pakistan for example.

We dont have to have a single weapon exploded on American soil to be punished by the folly. Read chap 18 of Nuclear War Survival Skills --Trans-Pacific Fallout for information on this.

I dont think (my opinion) that the tens-of-thousands-of-megatons-exploded-causing-nuclear-winter-end-of-it-all scenario is very real in this case. Hundreds of megatons exploded somewhere on the globe is imaginable (if any of this is thinkable), horrible and very survivable.

If this is imaginable to you, its just one more reason to get out of the city to where your families survival odds go up exponentially.

Im no expert on nuclear war survival, so I wont pretend to be here. I do know this. Your family can survive all but the worst fallout cloud that can be dumped on you if you put 6 inches of concrete and 30 inches of dirt between you and the radiation.

How do you do that without spending $40K on a prefab shelter buried in the back yard? Im sure there are other solutions, but one is to build yourself an ol fashion root cellar. If you dont garden, but live where there are tornadoes, you have one more excuse to do it and just tell the neighbors its your storm hidey hole.

If you have some concrete experience and could do the work yourself, it would cost a few thousands. Could even skip the health club membership and dig the hole by hand. (I have dug a few medium big holes by hand before, and there is something weirdly satisfying and exhilarating in it. Must be an endorphin high or something.)

And read a book like Nuclear War Survival Skills to find out the few quirks and doo-dads needed to make your root cellar a blast cellar.

Just writing this pegs the ol D&G meter. Being hit by a comet on top of it all would take it up another notch.

Maybe I am naive (probably). But I think we need to take the G out of D&G. Get right with your God. Have courage. Turn your face into the storm. Roll up your sleeves and survive. No matter what happens, there will be reasons to live.

Timothy

-- Timothy Rebman (trebman@megavision.com), July 12, 1998.

Since we are now surrounded by Indians (y2k) and we insist on looking for more Indians, lets not forget all of the nueclear reactors in Europe China and the Near East that were built by the Russians and their Comblock friends. They are aged and built on the Chernobyl style. We are pretty sure that our nukes will just shut down without all of the saftey features in place. We don't know what theirs will do. Please refer to some of the answers I got on my posted question, "Arab Water" It seems that there are going to be a lot of thirsty terrorists after B-day. How long can a person live without water? How long can fundamentalist resolve last? I am more concerned with lots of Chernobyls. The near East is way over populated in ratio to their natural food and water resources. They must import almost everything including sand. I read somewhere that even there sand is no good for making cement.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), July 12, 1998.