It has recently come to light that the Pentagon is carrying out a massive military exercise in the Western United States known as Jade Helm 15. This seemingly series of war games has drawn concerns from Republicans at the federal and state levels (particularly Texas), conspiracy theorists, and even Chuck Norris over the fact that the Obama Administration is preparing to impose martial law, especially due to the size of the exercise.
Jade Helm 15 is supposedly named after a real person (while 15 is probably referring to this year) and is scheduled to take place this summer in seven states: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. These states are listed on a map, and each is given one of the political statuses: hostile, leaning hostile, permissive, and leaning friendly.
So what is the military planning? War games? If so, what type of war game? And why is it being done on such a large scale, and across seven states? Is it a new type of training? And why these states? Considering the exercise will be conducted during the summer (and since of the area is desert) perhaps the military is preparing for desert warfare (i.e. a possible showdown with ISIS or Iran).
Or, as previously mentioned, is it a preparation for martial law? After all, six out of the seven states previously mentioned are either conservative states or swing states. So maybe the Obama Administration is wanting to impose martial law on them, although it is unclear why California (a blue state) would be on the list.
Which brings me to the next question: can nation-wide martial law be successfully carried out? One would have to consider several factors.
Martial law relies on the military enforcing the law. Considering Obama’s disdain for the military (hence the cutbacks), that might not be enough personnel to enforce martial law, especially any military personnel who refuse to obey such an order.
Obama has contemplated the creation of a paramilitary force. As far as anyone knows, such action has not been carried out–at least not yet.
The Obama Administration is offering to take over police departments in various cities, in exchange for helping them out financially. The question is, how many city leaders would be willing to take Obama up on his offer?
The status of county (or parish in Louisiana) police siding with Obama would come down to the sheriff’s political views. And keep in mind sheriffs can stand up to the federal government regardless of the county administrators’ views.
Not all Governors would be willing to go along with martial law. They could authorize their state police and Army & Air National Guards to counter any actions taken by the federal government (although the National Guard can be put under federal control).
Federal law enforcement agencies would be most willing to carry out Obama’s orders. But are there enough federal agents to do so?
Then there are Obama’s supporters, e.g. the Obama zombies. How many of them are willing to come out of the woodwork to impose his will on America?
Finally, there is the question of Obama’s enforcers being able to cover every square mile of the United States and monitor every citizen (even with the drones and other high tech).
So basically it comes to having enough personnel willing to enforce martial law throughout one of the world’s largest countries with a population of over 300 million. But given Obama’s political ideology, one can never be sure.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenationalguard/4401592829/
