Warfare in the 21st century is turning out to be stranger and darker than many people expected. In what is a suspected preemptive strike against Hezbollah, thousands of low-tech devices started exploding in people’s hands or pockets in Lebanon this week.
Hezbollah fighters have been switching to low-tech communications devices after learning that carrying around a cell phone is a dumb idea in the age of satellite warfare. The terror group ordered thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies as a more primitive method of communicating while avoiding precision rocket strikes.
On Tuesday, thousands of pagers erupted simultaneously in the suburbs of Beirut. The devices had shaped charges in them and they either exploded in the owners’ pockets or right in their faces. The latest casualty count has nine people dead and 2,750 injured from exploding pagers.
A few hours later, walkie-talkies across the country started exploding. Another 12 people died and 4,000 were injured in that attack. By late Wednesday, there were reports that battery packs in the homes of Lebanese people with rooftop solar were exploding, although those haven’t been confirmed yet.
How did Israel pull this off? Globalism and free trade. Hezbollah had to source the pagers, walkie-talkies, and rooftop solar battery packs from another country since they don’t manufacture them domestically.
Before we all point and laugh at Hezbollah having their pagers explode in their pants, we might want to think about where many of our electronics and gadgets were manufactured. If you want to take your iPhone apart and see what’s inside it, or if you want to swap out the battery, it’s impossible. Where is the iPhone manufactured again?
It’s scary to think about, but millions of Americans could be carrying around explosive devices right now without knowing it. China could just be waiting to flip the switch.
