Lucero: Jade Helm conspiracy insult to our military

If you haven’t heard by now, some Texans are in an uproar about routine military training exercises taking place in their state under the name Jade Helm 15.

link Joshua Lucero

For about two months now I’ve been reading conspiracy theories that accuse the federal government, and Barack Obama specifically, of preparing for a take over of Texas using the training exercises as a front.

That’s right, there are people who wish to believe that the U.S. is going to invade one of its own states as part of a secret plan to divide the nation and create a civil war using our own military might to instigate civil unrest and impose martial law.

The theories have picked up enough steam to have Texas Gov. Greg Abbott order the Texas State Guard to monitor the training exercises on behalf of concerned Texans.

In a quote from the New York Times, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said the Obama administration believed “that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans or even ‘cling to guns or religion.’ Patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned.”

The divisive nature of the conversations that support the conspiracy theories is baffling because those that have given credence to the theories are constantly proclaiming how they want the U.S. to be united as a nation while at the same time alienating large groups of their fellow countrymen.

I believe it is an insult to the men and women who serve in the military to think that they would follow an order as ludicrous as what the conspiracy theories claim to be on the horizon.

People hear “federal government” and associate it with evil and dismiss the fact that the federal government and the U.S. military are made up of individuals just like you and I.

Even if Obama wanted to use our own military against us, are the smart and skilled individuals who make up our military going to let that happen?

Just like you and I, these people are Americans and have as much skin in the game as any other American and don’t want to see their country crumble.

Claiming that the government would do this to people because they are patriotic Americans, religious, support the Constitution, or like guns only further divides the country.

For people making these claims there seems to be two Americas; one which includes “true American patriots” who support the constitution, go shooting for recreation, serve in the military and claim Christianity as their faith and everyone else who don’t deserve to call themselves American.

These people who claim to be “true patriots” alienate and devalue anyone who don’t fit their set of “American” ideals. Seems pretty un-American, seeing as our country was founded with freedom and liberty being the main goal for all of its citizens.

The theories about Jade Helm are only exacerbating a divide in the U.S. that could be solved with a bit of understanding and a lot less rhetoric.

Give some credit to your fellow American, even if they aren’t exactly like you. This is their America, too, and making them feel as though they don’t deserve to be part of it is only going to create the divide and unrest that the Jade Helm conspiracy theorists and their supporters claim to fear the most.

Joshua Lucero is a reporter for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact him at:

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