Annie Jacobsen

Never mind the fact that each interceptor has a 50% shoot-down rate.

And that's by the missile defense agency's spokesperson.

So there's this perception that we have a system like the Iron Dome that could take out these incoming missiles.

And we simply don't.

Which is why when nuclear war begins, it only ends in nuclear Armageddon.

Jeez.

I mean, you know, you take your when you're reporting or writing, you kind of take your hat off of the emotional or the sentimental part of things where you, you know, the mother in me, you know, you can't think like that.

You just have to tell the story.

I believe I also believe that.

If I can be as factual and dramatic as possible, then I will have the most readers, which is the point.

I am actually not trying to save the world as a journalist.

I'm trying to get you to read what I write because I found it super interesting.

reporting it and learning about it and also the whole process for me that i think is the most interesting is going to some of these people who are truly some of the smartest scientists in the world and getting them to explain it in the most basic like i say you have to tell it to me like i'm a kid because i don't have a science mind and that part is so that excitement part of it

balances out with the terror of it because i i do also understand why most people don't want to know about this it's too dreadful but they also don't want to know because they end up feeling sort of looked down upon i think if they ask basic questions like wait a minute how does a missile work or like you said what's what can't the hypersonics shouldn't we invest in hypers well

Who really wants to be lectured?

And so what I try to do is condense the lectures that I receive about how it all works into this dramatic form, which is how I landed on this format for this book, which I think is really effective, which is giving it to you like a scenario, like this is what would happen.

And then going back to all my sources, I mean, like, okay, here's an example.

We haven't even talked about submarines.

But the submarines are completely, you cannot find them in the sea.

They are stealth beyond stealth.