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Remember this discussion assumes there has been a no rules, total warfare, W. T. Sherman was a humanitarian in comparison, civil war.

I didn't assume that, but rather hoped to get to the goal line without giving the enemy lots of dead bodies to cry crocodile tears over.

Too, Obama owns the nuclear arsenal right now. Something else to think about. In an civil upheaval such as Huffpo contemplates (which is what I thought we were talking about), you can bet the Reds would try to keep control of the "football".

In an civil upheaval such as Huffpo contemplates (which is what I thought we were talking about), you can bet the Reds would try to keep control of the "football".

My point in the original post is that that kind of war is unlikely to happen. In 1860 both sides thought it would be an easy war, with rules, and that they could control it. The finest people of Washington and Richmond came out in their carriages to watch the battle of Bull Run because they thought it would be a splendid show. They were wrong.

Civil wars almost invariably get out of control. There are over 10,000 nukes in the US and it is a fair bet that both sides will get some of them. And if we go to total war it is likely some will get used. And chemical weapons are easy to whip up. Lets hope it stops short of Bio, but I wouldn't put it past Obama and his friends. Very bad if you happen to live in a large city as they make good targets. Nuke the farmland, well the city folks don't want to eat radioactive or bio-contaminated food so they might try to take that in tact.

In the US Civil War both sides took from all causes a total of 1,148,000 fatalities. The 1860 census puts the free population of the US at just under 27.5 million. That works out to a total of 4.17% casualties as a percentage of population. Since over half the country never suffered the privations of having army's marched across it and the 1860 version of a WMD was a guy with a torch we should probably take that as an absolute minimum. Working out with today's population I would venture that the minimum fatalities in a Civil War fought today would be 12.8 million dead, and probably several times that many wounded.

The lucky cities will look like London. The average city like Berlin, and the really unlucky like Nagasaki. The economy will consist of bartering for chickens and grain. After that sort of thing people are not going to be worried about what's is on American Idol, or who is teaching political science at Princeton next semester.

As I said in my original post nobody should look forward to a Civil War. Losing a civil war is the worst fate known to man. Winning one is only slightly better.