Who Would Have the Advantage in a US Civil War?

IWB ^ | Daniel Carter

[davikkm]

The escalation of hostility and violence in the United States is becoming undeniable. Over the past couple years alone, there have been politicians calling for increased antagonism toward Trump and his supporters, protesters (sometimes violently) confronting the police and ICE, violent clashes on the streets between Antifa and patriot groups, and many other instances that signify dark times ahead for the US. Almost one third of the nation believes a civil war is imminent. If this worst-case scenario becomes reality, who would have the upper hand?

Many on the right side of the political spectrum will hastily assume that they have the advantage because they have more guns. Republicans absolutely do own more guns, but many Democrats and Independents own guns as well. Will this advantage be enough to definitively win a war? It is hard to say.

[BroJoeK]

mad_as_he$$: "There are about 30 AC-130s in service."

Over 2,500 C-130 Hercs built since 1954 hundreds still in service, somewhere around the world.

You're talking about the Spectre/Spooky/Ghostrider gunship.
Those are exclusive to USAF and yes, maybe 30 in total.

mad_as_he$$: "They mostly only come out at night and are very vulnerable when on the ground.
Plan for success not failure."

"Vulnerable" is relative to threat assessment.
Where threats are higher, vulnerability is reduced.
Also, let's ask: how many people can tell the difference between, say, Hercules and Ghostrider sitting on the ground?

Bottom line: don't even think about it, pal.

[VietVet]

“Different kinds of war. They would not get near us, they would send in their rocketry and drones.”

You are assuming ‘they’ would be some kind of regular forces with high tech weapontry, while ‘we’ would be only light, irregular foot soldiers. But who invents and builds those rockets and drones? Where do the operators and maintenance people come from? For that matter, where would their foot soldiers come from?

“They would not get near us?” We would be all around them. In many cases ‘we’ would be ‘them.’

[Ransomed]

Hard to imagine any type of sustained civil unrest while the poorest people are the most likely to be obese and are used to smart phones and air conditioning. You’d think if things were that desperate we would be seeing massive voter turnouts before anyone choose to undergo the hardship that would come from widespread sustained civil unrest.

Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen, but it would be the first time while those conditions persist. Maybe if the internet gets turned off you would have waves of rotund zombies lumbering around howling for their smartphones to turn back on. I tend to think everyone is too comfortable to choose to risk it, at least for now. I also think the internet tends to magnify discontent and fools folks into overestimating the number of people who care about the same things they do.

Freegards

[HotHunt]

".... Guts and fortitude are what wins battles. And I don’t see liberals as having either....."

If their reactions and behavior after their Hillary loss is any indication, the Left will break down crying and wailing laments when things get tough.

And then, of course, there are all of those young snowflakes who would be seeking shelter in their comfy safe-spaces.

And the Left will all of the sudden embrace guns when they realize they have to fight a real war and not just a war of words.

It is then they will realize that they shouldn't have made it so difficult to buy guns and ammo. Their own rules will prevent them from arming up.

The Left will lose any civil war because it is in their DNA. They are perpetual losers.

[Lopeover]

Of course if they were coming for me. Think of it though all the leftist media is gone. All the hollywood leftists are gone and all the Democrat leaders are gone. It would be pretty nice in America. Yeah, just wishing.

[DownInFlames]

Order of defeating lefties in cities:

1. Cut off their electricity. Phones will be disabled in 3 days. That’s the amount of time it takes for switching stations to become disabled. It will shut down the only means melenials only known way to communicate.

Internet cafes and Starbucks will go out of business immediately.

2. Water will soon follow. Pumping stations will cease operations as cease as soon as the diesel for the backup generators run out. Most likely 5 days.

3. Close all bridges and highways into the cities. No traffic can go in or out.

4. Disable rail communications . No trains

Tada!,, there’re toast. In 30 days the civil war is over. The side effect will be the collateral damage to the sick, elderly, and children.

[NorthMountain]

So you want to fight a guerilla war?

Learn from the master.

And keep this in mind:

Prior to the "American Revolution", we had a reasonably well organized militia system in the colonies. Even so, building a regular army was key to success. We do not have a militia system at all, today.

The Viet Cong, the Taliban, ISIS, Sendero Luminoso, Pathet Lao, and EVERY other "successful" guerilla force was or is organized and trained, with a command structure, support, and logistics. All or almost all have or had outside State support. And the Viet Cong did not defeat the USA and conquer South Viet Nam. That was done by the Peoples Army of Viet Nam ... a large regular Army supported by the USSR ... after the USA abandoned South Viet Nam.

Even the American Revolution was supported from the outside. From Lafayette to de Grasse, we received vital support from France.

Fifty million deer hunters aren't an army, or even an organized guerilla force.

[Agatsu77]

Deport all of the to Europe.

[bgill]

Austin, TX would be easy. They thought setting up the state HQ in the middle of the state would benefit them. No, it’s too easy to surround and squash.

[gundog]

NICS could be shut down pretty easily. By either side.

[Jim Noble]

Order of defeating lefties in cities:

Easy-peasy.

Except you won't get to fight them.

IF you go to war, you will be fighting the land forces of the United States of America (or you won't need to go to war in the first place).

[KrisKrinkle]

Fifty million deer hunters aren't an army, or even an organized guerilla force.

"Quantity has it's own quality."

[mad_as_he$$]

All Spectres(AC-130H) are retired. So learn how to tell them apart. Not really that hard. While at it learn how to pick out an “M” variant. All US military combat aircraft are logistics intensive operations-that is a weakness.

[DownInFlames]

Yep. Just ask the Russians in WWII.

[NorthMountain]

Stalin's "quantity" was an organized, trained regular army with a defined chain of command, with support and logistics.

If fifty million deer hunters want to be an effective "quantity", they should start organizing themselves before TSHTF.

The author is a member of this forum.

[Roccus]

The advantage would go to the side willing to look their neighbor, fellow parishioner, PTA member, mailman in the eye and kill them.

YUP....the "front line" will be your front door.

[jdsteel]

But bunches of guys who are good with rifles are not an army. We would not last five minutes against a USMC rifle company.

But you wouldn’t be fighting a US rifle company. Or, if it came to pass, how many Marines would join the Conservative side?

There’s another thing; I’ll bet you and your buddies are AT LEAST as trained as the regulars of Vietnam, Iraq or Iran. An armed, homegrown force isn’t easily defeated especially when no one would lobbing MOABs at you.

[jdsteel]

About the same number of Vietnamese or Afghani’s or Iraqi’s. Those took a long time, and I give conservatives better odds than them.

[PROCON]

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[Bonemaker]

“But bunches of guys who are good with rifles are not an army. We would not last five minutes against a USMC rifle company.”

A. A USMC rifle company would on our side

B. So would a couple of million military veterans/retirees who know how to surgically hit targets