Distrust of Obama has some Americans Paranoid Towards Our Military

Talk of military takeover reflects pervasive views about president

Texans in pickup trucks rolled in from hundreds of miles around on a Monday morning in late April, passing by water towers adorned with smiley faces that hover cheerfully over the county seat. They pulled up in the town center, near a catfish house called Paw-Paws and a barber shop offering old-fashioned shaves.

Jim Dillon, who spoke out against the Jade Helm 15 
military exercise, keeps a couple of pistols in each car.

As they filed by the dozens into the county courthouse, past a stone memorial dedicated to American veterans, it seemed from all outward appearances like a wholesome exercise in local democracy.

But the citizenry was on edge.

In a sign of the deep distrust that has emerged in conservative parts of the country, on this day in this town 30 miles east of Austin, anger and concern poured out about a large-scale US military training exercise to be conducted in Texas and throughout the Southwest. Rumors stoked on the Internet and conservative talk radio spread fears that the troops and Humvees that will roll through Bastrop this summer are part of a plot by the Obama administration to declare martial law in Texas.

Bob Welch (standing at left) and Jim Dillon held a sign at a 
hearing about the Jade Helm 15 exercise in Bastrop on 
April 27.

An Army officer in fatigues who flew in from Fort Bragg, N.C., in a bid to soothe nerves stood at the front of the overflowing meeting room and answered a barrage of questions — some of them seemingly bizarre.

No, the military wouldn’t be seizing guns. No, the Walmarts closing down in certain communities are not being converted to detain and process political dissidents. No, the operation was not in preparation for World War III.

Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape: “This isn’t really about 
Jade Helm,” Pape said. “This is much deeper. This just 
revealed a condition that exists here in Texas.”

“You may have issues with the federal government. You may have issues with the administration. So be it,” Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lastoria said, pointing for emphasis at his US Army dress. “But this institution right here has been with you for over 240 years. Period.”

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