In war, the best approach to take is to go after your enemy’s “Achilles Heel”. In World War Two, Germany’s Achilles Heel was oil. They had very limited fuel production, most of it being synthetic. Once we started bombing their fuel production facilities, they couldn’t fly their planes or get very far with their Panzers. For the Japanese, the Achilles Heel was imports. So sinking their merchant fleet basically ended their weapons production, plus starved their population. So when the next big war starts, it is only logical to assume that our enemies will attack our Achilles Heel.
The modern West has an Achilles Heel. It’s blindingly obvious when it is pointed out. Our entire society, our entire way of life is dependent on a single commodity; Electricity. Without it, just about everything that we do comes screeching to a halt.
Electrical power generation is concentrated at a few sites. The electrical grid itself is extremely vulnerable and is virtually unprotected. On top of that, repairing any kind of major damage to the power distribution system takes a lot longer than we would like, even when the cause was just a major storm. And this is only when the only damage is broken power lines.
Much worse is when a power plant itself is damaged. The problem isn’t that it would take time to repair it, the problem is the scarcity of repair parts. No one is really making generators or any of the equipment needed to replace major electrical systems. This is because there is little ongoing demand for this stuff. So if a lot if it is suddenly damaged, it could be quite a while until power is restored.
Our enemies know this. There are sleeper cells of enemy agents in our country. Our enemies would be pretty daft not to have them here. And when the time comes, the electrical grid is probably their primary target.
When war breaks out, the government is not going to worry about your home not having power. It is going to concentrate on restoring power to those systems necessary for the war. Things like war industries and military bases. Your TV or refrigerator not having power is way way down on the list of things for the government to fix under such circumstances. And the vast majority of us will endure extreme personal hardship as a result.
What To Do
Recognize that we cannot always take electricity for granted. And recognize how much we are dependent on it. The realization of our personal dependency on electricity can help us to prepare for it not being there.
The most important need for electricity is not our smart phones. It’s the refrigerator. Most of us will have to deal with not having refrigeration for quite a while. This means that we need to know how to feed ourselves without things that require a working fridge.
Next is communication. We should have a portable radio; better yet, one that can be powered by a hand crank or solar power. There aren’t going to be a lot of batteries available for very long.
Last is light. We should have backups for light. The best option is some kind of solar power collection and storage. You don’t have to put giant panels on your roof, but have a solar collector that you can get for camping. It’s not going to power your fridge or your big screen TV, but it will allow you to have light.