By now if you’re a prepper (and even if not) you pretty much have to been living in a cave or under a rock not to have at least heard of Jade Helm. But for the benefit of anyone reading this who hasn’t very briefly Jade Helm is a very large scale military exercise happening now (as of writing this) in the Southwestern/Western states especially (though not exclusively) Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Southern California.
The official word is these are just exercises as have been done in the past with little fanfare, albeit never before on such a grand scale. On the other hand the usual sources are full of deep dark conspiracy theories about plans for martial law, door-to-door searches for (take your pick), mass round ups of Americans etc etc. Do a Google search and entertain yourself.
A lot of well-known and respected preppers have voiced concerns about it. I too definitely see the potential for this to be the stage for something bad now, or, preparing plans for something in the future. There can be no argument American’s freedoms, liberties and Constitutional rights have been ignored and trampled on particularly over the last 6–7 years.
However in this article I’d like to offer another, different perspective.
In my life each time there has been some sort of natural disaster (flood, hurricane, earthquake etc.) or “man-made” act (terrorist attack, mass shooting, etc) people have cried out the government was unprepared and/or acted ineptly in the immediate aftermath. These claims are definitely not on the while without good cause.
So as preppers what’s the answer? Practice!
All the best plans look great in theory but until you actually try them out it’s barely worth the paper their printed on. During an emergency shouldn’t be the first time you try a strategy or use a tool or piece of equipment.
We as good American citizens want our government to be prepared and ready to help American citizens when some sort of SHTF happens. Some disasters are just too massive for simply local community response (not to mention that’s part of the reason we’re pay outrageous taxes!). And regardless of what our politicians are saying and doing most Americans still have pride and faith in our Service people to help and do the right thing.
So what do you want?
How do you expect our Services to be better prepared for the next SHTF disaster if they aren’t trained and as close to realistically practiced as possible?
We live in a very odd world today likely none of us realistically foresaw even just 10 years ago. The threats to America and the American people are all too real. While I don’t for a moment discount the potential for how this can get real ugly real fast (regardless of the political winds), I think it’s very reasonable to consider that an exercise is just that: The opportunity to train, prepare, and re-evaluate our national readiness to deal with a crisis.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
