Internet traffic is buzzing about Jade Helm, a U.S. military exercise scheduled to begin July 15 (but according to latest reports in June) and end on September 15. It is to take place across a number of states, especially in the Southwest, and involves several branches of the military, including the 82nd Airborne, Navy Seals, Green Berets, and other Special Ops.

There is broad concern that the drill will transition into the onset of martial law. Some factors fueling the alarm: (1) No drill this extensive has ever occurred before; (2) it includes nighttime activities, air drops near towns, and attempts to infiltrate and "blend in" with civilian populations; (3) the exercise is unlawful as it violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits domestic deployment of federal troops in civilian areas (section 4 of the Constitution allows it in cases of "domestic violence," but that is clearly not the situation here); (4) the operation's field map has labeled Texas, Utah, and certain Southern California counties as "hostile" territory – troubling, since these areas also happen to contain populations especially known as constitutionalist, religious, and/or patriotic.

Nor does the caption on the Jade Helm logo, "Master the Human Domain," inspire confidence.

Unsurprisingly, mainstream media dismisses concerns about Jade Helm as ravings of "conspiracy nuts." This is unedifying, since mainstream media, owned and controlled by the same oligarchy that constitutes America's shadow government, also says this of those who critically analyze 9/11, the Federal Reserve, GMOs, chemtrails, and any other blight that serves the global elite's interests.

However, there is also a split over Jade Helm within alterative media, in particular at Veterans Today. Editor Kevin Barrett, whom I greatly respect as a fellow Truther, and whose radio show I have guested on several times, had this to say in a May 2 post, from which I repeat a few extracts:

Recently I have been seeing a whole lot of fear-addled responses to the Jade Helm exercises. While we should always be suspicious of military drills and exercises, which are sometimes used to launch false flags, suspicion is one thing and rampant delusional paranoia is another. . . .

The whole JADE HELM panic is based on one document describing the exercises. Nothing in that document suggests that exercises involving 1200 people are going to impose martial law on a nation of 300 million. . . .

Here at VT we have seen certain people go completely off the deep end about JADE HELM. They have gone from "sane paranoia" (realistic assessment of actual plots and threats) to "crazy paranoia" (egocentric delusional thinking, minus fact-checking and common sense). . . .

So my sane-paranoid assessment of Jade Helm is as follows: Yes, there may very well be a devious plot at work, but it isn't what you think. They aren't going to use 1200 game-playing troops in a handful of southwestern states to impose martial law on the whole country. They aren't going to lock us up in Wal-Mart. They aren't going to lock down the borders.

Instead, Jade Helm is being used (and may have been designed) to inject fear into the populace. The tangible benefits of this manufactured fear epidemic include:

*Burning the alternative media. Already VT has been damaged by a schism provoked by fear and attendant ego-bloating. And it isn't just VT. Average Joe Citizen sees all the JADE HELM hysteria and says, "Jeez, these kooks who imagine they're going to be interned in Wal-Mart must be the same crazies who think 9/11 was an inside job, Boston and Sandy Hook and Charlie Hebdo were false flags, the Zionist bankster freemasons run everything. . . what a bunch of loons.". . .