this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Lol. I understand its symbolism, but let's be real: they overwhelmed a building and barely clashed with poorly-staffed local police. In no reality were they in any way "close to overthrowing the government".
There's a pretty big difference between wanting to conquer/occupy a region and helping a local population police it. Plus, once government and social support for US presence in Afghanistan dropped, someone was going to control it.
It's not "my" federal military, and I'm not supporting them. But anyone who thinks they can win a war against the US military on US soil is out of their mind.
I highly doubt much of the US military would defect, they generally love the country more than any particular political ideology. So you'd have a likely highly motivated military with more than half of the public on their side.
Then again, if this was a coup situation, I'm guessing it would be a bit more difficult, since some of the military would be on the side of the challenger. But that wasn't what happened on Jan 6, Trump wasn't calling on the military to keep him in office, he merely refused to call in reinforcements to deal with the insurrectionists.
I'm not saying it couldn't happen here, I just think it would be incredibly difficult barring some kind of popular movement. And secession/insurrection isn't popular.
If it was the difference between keeping the union together and falling into anarchy/fascism, pretty motivated.
You provided the hypothetical. If my hometown was a hotbed of insurgents or something and it would be a strategic blow that would bring a swift conclusion to the Civil War, I wouldn't think too hard on it. I'd certainly need to know why though (I'm not interested in being involved in war crimes).
But I'll never be in that position. I'm past draft age, so I'd likely be defending my house, not bombing targets. But if somehow I was involved, I'd press the button if I was convinced it would target belligerents and end a lot of the fighting, hometown or not.