[Falcon4.0]

Then let the President order a "Blood Bath" of State National Guard Troops.
The times have changed.
He's to much of a pu$$y to order that kind of action.
His pattern is to get what he wants and not to have it tarnish his legacy.
It IS Always to provoke a reaction to his authority.

[Publius]

About a decade ago, Patrick Buchanan pointed out that after the Little Rock incident in 1957, the only reason the entire South didn't secede from the Union a second time was because the federal government possessed nuclear weapons and the will to use them on its own people. After all, Lincoln had only two weapons of mass destruction -- Grant and Sherman -- and he used them both.

The times haven't changed. The federal government would view it as insurrection, and it would understand that no foreign leader would take us seriously if the rebellion weren't quashed. You would be facing chemical, biological and perhaps nuclear weaponry, and the federal meme would be that you brought it upon yourself. The Mainstream Media would sound this drumbeat like they did after Waco.

And don't think the military won't fire on its own people. Look up "Bonus March + 1932" for a preview. Once the federal government declares you an insurgent, you're as good as dead.

Why did Eisenhower use federal troops in Little Rock? Because his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, told him that Krushchev would not take him seriously if he didn't put the rebellion down quickly.