Meeting does little to allay fears of military
Bastrop County Army drill stirs skepticism, conspiracy theories.
On a map released by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command to show the fictitious battlefield of the Jade Helm 15 training exercise, Texas is labeled as “hostile” territory.
On Monday, Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria found out why.
Lastoria answered questions for two hours from a crowd of more than 150 people at a special meeting of the Bastrop County Commissioners Court, hoping to allay locals’ concerns that the training operation is a way for the federal government to take over Texas and much of the Southwest.
Instead, Lastoria was told that he couldn’t be trusted and was asked whether Jade Helm 15 will involve bringing foreign fifighters from the Islamic State to Texas, whether U.S. troops will confiscate Texans’ guns
and whether the Army intends to implement martial law through the exercise. The answer for all three was no.
“It’s the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany: You get the people used to the troops on the street, the appearance of uniformed troops and the militarization of the police,” said Bob Wells, a Bastrop resident, after the meeting. “They’re gathering intelligence. That’s what they’re doing. And they’re moving logistics in place for martial law. That’s my feeling. Now, I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I hope I’m a ‘conspiracy theorist.’”
County Judge Paul Pape invited Lastoria to the informational meeting following an explosion of outrage on social media after the release of the map, which labeled Texas, Utah and the southern tip of California as “hostile.” The commissioners are not considering revoking their agreement to allow the military to conduct Jade Helm 15, Pape said Monday.
Throughout his presentation, Lastoria stressed that Jade Helm 15 is a routine exercise to prepare the United States for the difficulties of modern warfare, in which soldiers must maneuver through civilian populations rather than fight on a battlefield. Texas, which he noted is 10 percent larger than Afghanistan, has an ideal topography, Lastoria said.
“The terrain is very challenging and it’s going to make our soldiers sweat — and sweating in peacetime is what we want because it’s going to reduce the bleeding in wartime,” he said.
The training operation, which is scheduled to run from July 15 to Sept. 15 and will be the largest operation of its kind in U.S. history, will involve all four branches of the military and 1,200 soldiers, he said.
In Bastrop, one of 12 Texas counties involved in the operation, there will be at most 60 soldiers, two Humvees and one night in which a helicopter exercise will take place, Lastoria said. Most of the exercises in Bastrop will take place on a private property leased at no charge to the Army by the landowner. The exercises that move off that property, he said, will be simulated transports to and from the other outposts in Texas.
Soldiers will wear either uniforms or orange armbands to show that they are part of the exercises and will not try to move among the population undetected, Lastoria said.
Lastoria noted that Texas in the past has been hospitable to military training efforts. Misinformation spread by critics with a “personal agenda,” he said, is the reason for the change in attitude.
“Texans are historically supportive of these efforts to prepare our troops,” he said. “People want to make this something that it is not.”
One attendee asked, “When we have a federal government that cannot tell the truth, how do we know that what you’re saying is true?” In response, Lastoria said that the operation was a product of the Army, not politics.
“You may have issues with the administration. So be it. But this institution right here has been with you for over 200 years,” he said. “I’ve worn this uniform across five different administrations for 27 years.”
Pape said he didn’t expect such a strong negative reaction from the public. Asked why the county agreed to be a Jade Helm 15 host as residents are still recovering from the devastation of the Labor Day 2011 wildfires, Pape said he didn’t expect the exercise to cause anxiety.
“If I as your county judge thought we were in one iota of danger from this ... I would do all that I could to put a stop to it,” he said. “Many of the (residents) of Bastrop County are still suffering and reeling from the disaster. ... We hopefully cannot let that be a negative anchor in our lives. We’re trying to move on as a county.”