OFF THE WIRE
The controversial “martial law” military exercises known as Jade Helm 15 began with a total media blackout Wednesday.
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command explained that they will
take point on a large-scale training exercise in Texas — or, as Army Times explains, “if you believe some fringe outlets, they’ll take point on the Pentagon’s preparation for civil war.”
The Jade Helm 15 military exercises will run through September 15th
and are said to focus on “unconventional warfare.” But critics say this
amounts to domestic training for “martial law.”
Army Times explains these training exercises will involve “Army
special operators,” and “representatives from the other services.”
It will also “focus on enhancing team-level elements’ abilities to
operate in unconventional warfare well-removed from
company-and-battalion-level organization,” USASOC spokesman Lt. Col.
Mark Lastoria said.
But “unconventional warfare” seems to be code for military seizing control of civilian areas. Some critics have expressed concern that these drills are focused on the U.S. southwest.
In the months leading up to these exercises, an array
of conspiracy theories have emerged, leading to “outrage” that “even
led to town hall meetings in Texas communities with Army
representatives.”
It is clear that many conspiracy theories about the training exercise
were bizarre, to say the least. The United States government is not
“taking over”, they already “took” over. There’s no need to “invade”
Texas, the government already controls it.
But while there were plenty of rumors and conspiracy theories about
Jade Helm these have apparently been generated in large part by the unusual secrecy surrounding the exercise.
A military spokesman even told the Washington Post
that they will not be allowed to observe Jade Helm exercises, or report
on them, in any way. Still, there are a plethora of social media users
who see the words “Jade Helm” in the title of an article and then start
talking about how any critical concerns about the exercises are
tantamount to “tin foil hats”. But the Internet is replete with
fallacious argumentation, and the
government seems to count on the action-reaction of these types,
interplaying and debating with those who jump to the most outrageous
conclusions, to cooperatively create an informational smokescreen for
whatever it is that the military is trying to hide.
The Washington Post reports
that “Embedded reporters won’t be permitted at any point during the
exercise, in which military officials say that secretive Special
Operations troops will maneuver through private and publicly owned land
in several southern states. Lt.
Col. Mark Lastoria, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command,
said his organization is considering allowing a small number of
journalists to view selected portions of the exercise later this summer,
but nothing is finalized.”
In a statement to the media, Lastoria said Wednesday that “all
requests from the media for interviews and coverage of U.S. Army Special
Operations Command personnel, organizations and events are assessed for
feasibility and granted when
and where possible. We are dedicated to communicating with the public,”
he added, “while balancing that against the application of operations
security and other factors.
Jade Helm will be conducted in the U.S. Southwest from July 15
through September 15. It will see more than 1,200 troops flooding these
areas for reasons we cannot verify at this time.
For some reason this does not concern a lot of people. But there are
many reasons why it should that might have nothing at all to do with a
“government take over.”
Such reasons could include but are not limited to concerns about invasions from the southern border. CNBC reported that Chechnya has threatened to arm Mexico against the US
and that there has been international debate over the legal status of
US “ownership” of states like California, New Mexico, Arixona, Nevada,
Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
It is interesting that this is the precise region that the military is being sent to for training.
One need not assume that the goal of such an endeavor is “martial law,” but that might not be mutually exclusive with concerns about the southern border.
Alternatively, we have a situation were thousands of Mexican undocumented families have been locked up in family detention centers in these same border regions. They have no pending court dates,
they are just being kept there indefinitely. That includes children.
Concerns about Jade Helm could include worries about what the government
might plan in terms of action against undocumented Mexicans trying to
cross the border, or who have already crossed. Again, these latter
concerns need not be seen as mutually exclusive with the aforementioned
ones about the recent claims from the Russian satellite arming Mexico
against the US.
Whatever the true aims of Jade Helm are, they should be open to
critical inquire and scrutiny, not ridicule. The fact that they are
being shrugged off as a “conspiracy theory” when both the military and
mainstream media acknowledge the bizarre nature of the months-long
drills makes the exercise all the more suspicious to many investigators.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercise.
Concerns are not without cause. The military has previously granted access to Special Operations like this in the past. One journalist who observed the exercise Robin Sage in North Carolina, wrote about it for the magazine Our State. There was little fuss over granting this access to them or any other journalist.
The Washington Post reports that “The media also has been granted access
to Special Operations forces overseas for occasional media reports and
books, including the 2011 book ‘The Wrong War,’ by Bing West, and the
2013 work ‘One Hundred Victories,’ by Linda Robinson.”
So why not in the case of Jade Helm? If you don’t think that question
deserves an answer, then you probably don’t ask too many critical
questions in the first place.
(Article by M. David and Jackson Marciana)
