The problem with troops, if loyal, need to be paid. States like Illinois are in desperate financial shape and our dollar could likely be near worthless. That’s going to make logistics real difficult.
We could unload our entire conventional arsenal on the country and a great deal would still be left intact. The national guards don’t have that much to make a dent. It would also work against the govt to destroy the tax base and infrastructure, but the point is you aren’t going to control territory without boots, and there simply aren’t enough soldiers to maintain control. The military is about concentrated force, a highly dispersed situation is not conducive to victory, such as what happened to our troops in Somalia.
There will be a fan out, but after you take away the elderly, sick and weak, people without transportation, it will be muted. Most people with nowhere to go will look to the first place for food, not hop in the car and drive to Carbondale. Most won’t be armed, gas will be limited, they will be starving and getting weaker, and up against dug in people. The farther away the less the influx. A great deal will never make it out of the city.
Those that do will be outgunned. It won’t be pretty but if they can’t settle in they’ll either starve or be killed, numerical superiority or no. After the initial anarchy things will work out to the natural order, but be sure that there will be little to nothing beyond local control what isn’t wasteland. Even most state govts will be pretty impotent. It’s those in the far rural areas 3 or more hours from a major city that will have the best chance of surviving.
the police and the military will be paid with food stuffs stolen from citizens....thus it always is when you have a totalitarian govt....just like Russia...