Review: Blink of an Eye

Good day all, Angry Webmaster here. I just finished a new novel called Blink of an Eye. The book was written by former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen. Just to get it out of the way, I was disappointed in this book.

The story revolves around the nuclear destruction of Savannah, Georgia. It was this premise that attracted me. I’ve always liked a good nuke America story. Normally, these stories involve Islamic terrorism or some sort of third world war. Not this time.

In this case, the terrorists were actually a radical christian group called the brethren and their goal was to start an all out war between the Judeo-Christian ((About Judeo-Christian)) world and the Islamic world. The cast of characters includes a president remarkably like Obama, just somewhat more competent, a radical right wing congressman running for president against the president. A former Mossad agent, the Brethren, a reporter and a presidential aid.

The story starts with US forces leaving Iraq and a suicide boat doing a repeat of the USS Cole. ((USS Cole bombing)) The Congressman running against the President accuses Iran of being responsible for the attack. The President throws the investigation into a Committee, basically burying the mess until after the election. (Sound familiar?)

Next we have a small cruise ship going to Savanna and a passenger spots a pair of Arabs and he send in a tip since they are acting suspiciously. They get removed from the ship and found to be using false passports. There’s a lot of plot set up, then we end up in a Coast Guard helicopter. They’re going out on a night search & rescue mission when they get a brief message and then their entire avionic suite fails. The engines keep going but they have no idea what has happened. They head back to base and find the entire city blacked out. The finally end up heading into a Marine base.

At first, people think a tsunami hit and destroyed the city, but they soon realize that some sort of nuclear device has gone off. We now have the usual thing of thew Administration trying to find out what happened, who set off the bomb, and trying to rescue survivors. While all this is happening, the Congressman is saying this was Iran’s doing and is demanding that a state of war be declared and that Iran be destroyed.

The President doesn’t want to do this, at least until they know if Iran was actually responsible. We now see how Obamalike this president is. He is extremely concerned about how the rest of the world will perceive him and the United States. While all this is going on, there is a subplot about having the President declare martial law, suspend the constitution and cancel the elections.

Because of the Presidents hesitation, (And frankly I agree with this), this loudmouth starts working on an impeachment of the President for refusing to defend the nation. There’s a lot of back and forth and people gathering information, and then a breakthrough occurs just before the President goes to Congress to ask for a declaration of War against Iran.

It turns out that the bomb was actually a United States weapon that was lost back in 1958 off the coast of Savanna. The President uses this information in his address to congress and utterly shocks them. He also talks about the Brethren and how they had planned to use the bomb in Iran to start the war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

The wrap up of the story is rapid and rather unsatisfying. I doubt if a lot of people remember William Cohen. He was a republican Senator who went to work for the Clinton Administration. He was a “moderate” (In other words, a RINO) who was part of the Establishment Party and this story shows it. The fact that no one even thought about the Broken Arrow ((What is a Broken Arrow)) as a possible source of the blast shows me just how implausible the story is.

The lost nuke in this case, actually exists and was lost off Savanna. People have been looking for it since it was dropped by a damaged B47. The incident, known as the “Tybee Island mid-air collision” occurred during a SAC exercise when a B47 was clipped by an F86 Sabre jet. The fighter pilot was able to eject and survived, but the bomber managed to stay airborne.

However, the bombers pilot, Colonel Howard Richardson, was concerned about what would happen if he crashed with the bomb on board, not to mention trying to keep the plane in the air with a 7,600-pound (3,400kg) Mark 15 hydrogen bomb on board. Colonel Richardson ask for and was granted to take jettison the weapon into Wassaw Sound ((Wassaw Sound)). Richardson was then able to get the plane back on the ground safely.

The Air Force searched for the bomb but wasn’t able to find it, and there have been a number of other groups who have looked for it over the decades. They said, and continue to say that it wasn’t carrying a nuclear capsule was removed prior to the bomber taking off for the exercise. Of course, the military would never admit that a live nuke was being carried on a bomber during an exercise.

Now if a nuclear explosion were to happen in that area, the FIRST THING people would thing of was that the lost hydrogen bomb was live and had just gone off. Of course, nuclear weapons require a lot of maintenance. This weapon has been sitting in the mud for over 50 years. The odds of it going off are about as good as my becoming the first emperor of the United States.

So how do I rate this book?

I don’t give it more than 4 out of 10 stars. It is fairly well written, but the entire premise is, to put it bluntly, crap. If Mr. Cohen thinks that the military doesn’t keep an eye out for anyone doing a search pattern in the area of the lost bomb, then he was obviously one of the most inept Secretaries of Defense we’ve ever had.

Another problem with the plot is Mr. Cohen’s obvious contempt for the conservative and religious people in this country. I don’t know what Mr. Cohen’s religious beliefs are and I’m not going to look them up. It doesn’t matter and I don’t care. However, if he thinks that a large group of hard corp religious Christians want to start Armageddon, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell him.

I’m not much of a religious person. About the only times I go into a church is for weddings and funerals. I do know people who are deeply religious and the last thing they want to do is start a nuclear war, or any war. They will try to convert you to their views, but unlike a certain religion that came out of Arabia some 1400 years ago, they outgrew doing this by force a few hundred years ago.

So I will not recommend this book. don’t waste a dime on it. If you like this sort of story, (Nuclear weapons going off in the U.S), then try Lee Boyland‘s novels.

I hate being disappointed in the books I read.

That is all

~The Angry Webmaster~