Not the Time for the Insurrection Act

I am not optimistic that the Insurrection Act would be a good idea or would work.
 
The Insurrection Act probably won’t work out the way Trump wants it to. Sure, it will enable regular troops to defend federal agents and even enforce the law (an insurrection is one of the few times actual troops can do this, thanks to the Posse Comitatus Act). But martial law isn’t a panacea.
 
For one, the left will freak out and see this as Trump declaring war on them, to which they will respond in kind. I would not be surprised to see actual terrorism begin in response. This won’t be going toe-to-toe against the troops necessarily, but asymmetric attacks in the form of assassinations, sabotage, and targeting civilians. Federal targets will probably be hit outside of the insurrection zones.
 
When the feds crack down in one area under the Insurrection Act, the leftists will just move to a new area, forcing the feds to invoke the Act again wherever. First Minnesota, then Albuquerque, etc. If pressure relents in one area, the activity will spike again there.
 
Prosecutions in the civilian court system will be problematic. Leftist judges and left-leaning juries in sympathetic areas might acquit the legions of insurrectionists and traitors being arrested. This will create a huge problem as the arrests are then catch-and-release without any real teeth unless habeas corpus is suspended. Congress then might very well override the President’s order or fail to pass a bill allowing or expanding it. Courts will almost certainly limit or nullify the suspension.
 
With the court system still in operation, Trump cannot setup military tribunals and would have a hard time arguing that it is impossible to administer justice simply because leftist or a wishy-washy judiciary is refusing to properly try “political prisoners” (and “political prisoner” is exactly how the left will frame it). Being unable to try, convict, or even just intern insurrectionists and terrorists will hinder the effectiveness of the Act, perhaps even making a mockery out of it.
 
Appeals will probably ravage any military orders implemented under martial law, such as curfews, banning of assemblies, etc. Thus any extraordinary regulations possible under martial law won’t have much real effect.
 
This will leave the Act and the troops as basically muscle. They can provide overwatch, engage in firefights, do crowd and riot control, and make arrests, but they won’t be much more effective than flooding the area with more cops. All it will do is make the situation look like a military occupation (which it is) without teeth, playing into the left’s hands. Troops will be exposed to violence and I seriously doubt if Trump has the political capitol or the stomach to cross the Rubicon and order the insurrection violently suppressed as it should be.
 
I also do not think that Trump and the DOJ is in a position to start en-masse arresting the billionaires, NGOs, and politicians funding and fueling these things. Where are the sedition charges against Tim Walz? What are the odds of him being convicted on those charges? Would even treasonous individuals who will eventually kill federal agents or troops be convicted and executed without a military tribunal?
 
Frankly, things should be allowed to get so bad that the public and Congress is begging for the Insurrection Act, giving Trump the power to do whatever is necessary to restore order.