According to the Washington Post, RWNJ conspirary theorists were freaking out about Jade Helm 15 a full month ago…
The mission is vast both geographically and strategically: Elite service members from four branches of the U.S. military will launch an operation this summer in which they will operate covertly among the U.S. public and travel from state to state in military aircraft. Texas, Utah and a section of southern California are labeled as hostile territory, and New Mexico isn’t much friendlier.
That’s the scheme for Jade Helm 15, a new Special Operations exercise that runs from July 15 to Sept. 15. Army Special Operations Command announced it last week, saying the size and scope of the mission sets it apart from many other training exercises…
… but only now is the paranoia level high enough to demand that every right-wing Texas politician feels himself compelled to Take A Principled Stand, proclaiming their suspicion of… America’s elite military forces, one of Texas’s most reliable big employers. Who are you gonna believe — America Strong, or the geniuses at Infowars? There’s been some pushback, per TPM:
A former Republican state lawmaker wrote a scathing letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday that slammed him for “pandering to idiots” who believe that a planned U.S. military exercise is cover for a forcible takeover of the state.
In a letter obtained by the Dallas Morning News, Todd Smith, who served in the state legislature for 16 years, wrote that he was “livid” about Abbott’s request for the State Guard to monitor the military’s upcoming training exercise, dubbed “Jade Helm 15.”
“I am horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do,” Smith wrote…
Longer explanation of the actual military exercise at Gawker‘s Foxtrot Alpha sub-blog, here:
… You can read the DoD’s brief on Jade Helm’s Texas operations here. It is fairly straight forward and nothing really that strange, aside from the fact that its map spans across the American southwest and into Texas. Within the narrative of this exercise, different states have different levels of affiliation. Just like in the real world, some of these states can be relatively neutral while still sympathizing with one of the major belligerents. This is a key part of irregular warfare, identifying which indigenous forces you can work with and assessing how hard it will be to make that happen…
The large and diverse geography that the exercise spans allows planners to create uniquely scripted fictional cultures and affiliations of each state within it, creating an overall very complex irregular warfare situation, with many nuances to account for. This large geographical area also allows for unique logistical challenges that crews tasked with transporting special operations forces around the theater cannot get when an exercise is contained in a few small military operating areas…
The DoD also came right out and said why they chose Texas for the core part of the exercise, as they have found the state’s populace is very understanding when it comes to the need to train US military units in realistic conditions and thus more forgiving of any peculiar occurrences or disruptions caused by an exercise…
Of course, if we’re talking wingnut Texans and high-power pandering… yup, Bloomberg Poltics has the video:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Saturday that he’d been hearing concerns about Jade Helm 15, a domestic military training exercise that has become a fount of conspiracy theories, and that he wanted questions about it to be answered.
“My office has reached out to the Pentagon to inquire about this exercise,” Cruz, a Texas senator, told Bloomberg at the South Carolina Republican Party’s annual convention. “We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don’t trust what it is saying.”…
“I have a great deal of faith and confidence in Governor Abbott,” said the senator. “He is a long-time friend and mentor of mine. You know, I understand a lot of the concerns raised by a lot of citizens about Jade Helm. It’s a question I’m getting a lot. And I think part of the reason is we have seen, for six years, a federal government disrespecting the liberty of the citizens. That produces fear, when you see a government that is attacking our free speech rights, or Second Amendment rights, or religious liberty rights. That produces distrust.”…
Truly, a face crying out…
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