By Paul Bremmer
The Jade Helm 15 military training exercise slated to hit the American Southwest this summer may be the military’s attempt to “master the human domain,” according to one reporter who’s been digging into the matter.
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command, which will organize and oversee the exercise, created an electronic presentation about Jade Helm 15 that includes a logo with the motto “Master the Human Domain.”
Author and reporter Cheryl Chumley says that will involve some unconventional tactics.
“My interpretation is it’s less bombing, less boots on the ground, less tanks, and a lot more psychological-type warfare,” Chumley told an audience recently at Faith & Freedom Coalition Delaware.
She said the U.S. military used to focus on conquering the traditional air, land and sea domains. But a few years ago, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) officials decided they needed a new method of warfare to combat untraditional foes like al-Qaida, so they vowed to “master the human domain.”
“What that does is it basically requires the military to adopt a strategy that leads to long-term relations in order to win military battles,” Chumley explained.
Such a strategy involves dropping Special Forces in targeted areas, where they try to blend in with the local civilian population. The key is for the soldiers to build trust among the civilians and subsequently influence their behaviors.
According to Chumley, who authored “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality,” SOCOM commanders created a vision statement in which they pledged to adopt such a battle strategy by 2020. She quoted from that vision statement:
“Success in the human domain will depend upon understanding the human terrain and establishing trust with those humans who occupy that space to then apply unique capabilities that are designed to assess, analyze and prevail in population-centric strategies or struggles.”
In other words, said Chumley, unsuspecting American citizens will be part of a grand test.
“It’s not about martial law; it’s more about winning the trust of citizens in a training session, and what that means is the citizens in these seven states are guinea pigs,” she said. “They’re the test subjects for these special operations soldiers.”
In its presentation on Jade Helm, SOCOM stated “some participants will be wearing civilian attire and driving civilian vehicles.”
Chumley sees that as the scariest part of the operation.
“I think at the very least that the residents of these seven states might like to know if they’re part of this operation or not,” Chumley declared. “It’s a little bit alarming thinking you could be at the local 7-Eleven, and the guy next to you just chatting you up is actually part of a special operations campaign.”
Jade Helm 15 is a joint exercise involving all four U.S. military branches, local law enforcement officers, and various federal agencies. It is scheduled to begin on July 15 and last eight weeks. It will take place in seven states, all in the Southwest: Texas, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
A SOCOM map of the operation labels Texas, Utah, and two counties in southern California as “hostile” territory. Notably, all of those areas are Republican-controlled regions. Meanwhile, California, Nevada and Colorado are labeled “permissive.”
SOCOM has warned residents of the seven states they should expect increased aircraft at night, more noise than usual, and suspicious-looking people conducting suspicious-looking activities. But the military assures residents those suspicious activities are merely “designed to prepare [soldiers] for complex environments overseas.”
However, Chumley believes the fact that Jade Helm is taking place here at home, in ordinary communities, should raise some red flags.
“The fact that they’re doing this on American soil outside of U.S. military bases is at least worthy of watching and asking some questions, because the military basically trains where it’s going to be doing missions,” she reasoned. “So if they’re training on civilian grounds, in communities in seven different states, then you have to wonder, what are they training for?”
