RE: Besides, what nation in its right mind would bloodily suppress a secessionist movement in the age of instant news.
Yep, I was just thinking about that... will the other 49 states form a military alliance to forcibly tell Texas — “You cannot secede or we’ll kill you like the North did to the South during Lincoln’s time”?
Not sure if this can happen. In fact, if any, I’d say the Red States would be sympathetic to Texas and I’d probably think that there are more Red State Soldiers than Blue State Soldiers.
True dat, especially so in the case of career NCOs. And I recall hearing someplace that the Northeastern (i.e. liberal) states haven’t met their recruitment quotas in years. Without the south (and I include WV, KY and MO as the south), mountain west and much of the midwest, we’d have hardly any active-duty military at all.