I did time in the military too and have given this matter some thought. I know that the military could kill a lot of civilians if that is all they were trying to do. I also know that no more than 15,000 poorly equipped and poorly educated third world terrorists at any one time in Iraq kept most of the Army, Air Force and MC tied up for years. If push comes to shove there will likely be many times that number opposing the government here, in a country tens of times the size of Iraq. It would not be a cake walk, it would be a nightmare for the military and any thinking person recognizes that fact. It is my guess that many soldiers and marines will choose not to kill their countrymen. Some will but some will not. I think the military may just wash their hands of the whole thing if it happened because of that and do the wait and see what happens thing. I have sons in the Army now and I don’t think either of them would kill Americans just because they were ordered to intimidate the population. I taught them that their oath is to the constitution, not to any political party or person. I also taught them to only obey lawful orders and moral ones. Of course they are military brats and I may have raised them with more attention to such matters than most civilian parents. I don’t see wasting the citizens of the USA as being either lawful or moral unless they attack you first. If any troops choose to go that route, they had better make certain that their side wins because there will certainly be charges waiting for them if they lose. Using military force to control the US population is NOT what the military is for but that is just my 2 cents worth. I don’t pay my taxes so this guy and his buddies can run LAVS through my lawn. I guess this guy must be in an elite unit if he regularly shoots 200 live rounds a day in training. I used to be a battalion training guy and know the STRAC manual and annual allocations of ammo per troop. There are not many folks in the military who shoot 200 rounds a day or even 200 a month. Most troops shoot about 200-400 rounds in training per year and it shows, most are poor marksmen. I have always stayed more proficient using my personally owned weapons and my own ammo on my own dime than on the training the Army provided me. I regularly shoot more ammo in one range visit that I did in a year in the Army. i think the author is pretty much full of cr@p.
John Ross has a character in Unintended Consequences asserting the IRA never had more than 200 active members at a time; they kept an island the size of Arkansas tied up for decades.