Entire nations know better than to take on the US military

The US isn't just a military stick, it's also an economic carrot. The folks that end up wrangling with the stick are inevitably the ones denied the carrot.

Countries like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and I guess now Yemen had been in an economic conflict with the US - via embargos and proxy wars - long before the first American soldier arrived.

The thing about Texas is that a handful of jerk-offs posting from their 8086s in Beaumont aren't the guys who will feel the pain in a serious break away.

It's Dell Computer and Exxon and fucking Pizza Hut that will hurt. And their executives will drag these dissidents out back to the wood shed themselves long before The Republic of Texas dipshits need to worry about a B-52 over their heads.