3000 Troops to fight Ebola
About ten days ago, we wrote about the President’s intention to send US troops to Africa to help fight the Ebola epidemic there. A few weeks before that, I speculated that would happen, but I never expected that they’d be sending three thousand troops;
The stepped-up U.S. response includes sending 3,000 troops to the region, including medics and corpsmen for treatment and training, engineers to help build treatment facilities and logistics specialists to assist in patient transportation. Troops would not provide direct care to Ebola patients, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. A substantial number will be stationed at an intermediate base in Senegal, with others at locations in Liberia, he said.
Obama also announced that Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, head of U.S. Army Africa, will head a military command center based in Liberia.
From AFP;
Most of the US effort, which will draw heavily on its military medical corps, will be concentrated in impoverished Liberia — the worst hit nation — with plans to build 17 Ebola treatment centres with 100 beds in each.
[…]
Washington will also send 65 experts from the public health service corps to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced US military hospital to care for health workers who become sick with Ebola.
Ebola prevention kits, including disinfectant and advice, will also be supplied to 400,000 of the most vulnerable families in Liberia.
So we’re raising the costs of veterans’ healthcare while providing free healthcare and building free healthcare facilities in Africa. And, what are the troops who are deploying to Africa going to contract in the various shitholes that they’ll need treatment for in ten or twenty or thirty years from now, when their veterans’ healthcare has been whittled down to nothing?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Veteran Health Care
In a perfect world, this would be but a ruse to forward deploy troops in preparation for hitting ISIS.
In reality, Jonn nailed it in his last paragraph.
I’d love to see the mission analysis on this one, to include task and purpose, troops to task, and unit types.
In my opinion, this falls more under State supporting the WHO and NGOs with, potentially, the USPHS providing direct medical care with some limited military in support for log and security. My numbers wouldn’t come close to 3000.
I see this as a cynical, careless use of US troops to get them to die horribly in place of the kind of people who ought to be handling this task. I do hope these troops are extremely well-trained in self- and unit- protection.
Flies, fingers, feces, fluids, foods. Just remember the five F’s of field sanitation.
While I don’t like to see the troops in harms way, especially on an atypical task like this, the reality is that the risk of this outbreak spreading is significant enough that we need to take action. At least one study, which I haven’t read yet, claims there’s an 18% chance of Ebola spreading to the US in late September (link below).
Is the Army the best group for this task? In theory, probably not, but in practice we don’t have any other sort of task-force of medical and engineering specialists ready to deploy and build facilities, assist in logistics and offer expertise.
I assume every medical capability we have will be in play if any of our people get sick. This isn’t a heartless attempt to kill US troops, it’s an effort to stop the spread of this before it becomes a global pandemic.
Here’s the paper I mentioned: currents.plos.org/outbreaks/article/assessing-the-international-spreading-risk-associated-with-the-2014-west-african-ebola-outbreak/
In another administration, I would tend to agree with you. This administration is perfectly willing to waste the lives of our border agents and Mexican citizens for political purposes. What evidence do you have that they have any concern whatsoever for our young men and women?
It’ll be up to our senior military to safeguard these people through training and discipline. God help them.
Let me assume a worst-case scenario – that, exactly as you say, Obama doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the lives of our soldiers. Let me also be incredibly cynical (from my point of view) and imagine that all he cares about is the future of the Democratic party.
Even in this scenario, with the possibility of Ebola spreading to the US, it seems likely to me that the hardest-hit regions would be places with high population density, and especially low-income communities that typically have worse access to advanced health care. Basically, bastions of liberal voting. Given that a pandemic in those communities could shift the electoral demographics considerably, doesn’t it make sense that Obama would want to contain the outbreak as best he can?
Even if you feel he doesn’t care about the lives of the soldiers at all, the motivation here wouldn’t be to have US soldiers die horribly, it’d be to have them prevent a catastrophe that would hinder Democratic electoral chances in the future.
I understand our politics are different, and I certainly understand anger and distrust of this administration, but I think in this case the goal is to contain the outbreak, not to (intentionally) harm soldiers. The latter does us -or, even, just Democrats- no good whatsoever.
So LC, I think I get it. Obama would rather risk sacrificing our military personnel overseas than to risk decimation of the dense/low income population centers at home by a relatively untreatable disease, because to do so would result in a net loss of Democrat votes. (And by the way, I think you misused the word “Democratic” above in regards to electoral process.)
How’d I do? 😉
I think you’re both mistaken. You forget the ineptitude and dimwitted things that this administration has already done that don’t make any sense to any of us.
This ‘idea’ – send 3,000 troops on a ‘mission of mercy’ (I use that term loosely) to ‘fight ebola’ (with what? their good looks?) is a ‘good will gesture’ that shows the USA ‘cares’ about those less fortunate.
No one with an ounce of common sense would send US troops to an epidemic hot zone, even as a goodwill gesture, when there are aid workers already there battling the disease and getting sick from it.
This is just another stupid, poorly thought-out idea from the nitwit who sits in the Oval Office and his sidekick Jarrett behind the curtain.
The worst case scenario is that some of the US troops will contract the disease, bring it home and it will spread, and I doubt that this probabily – very high – even penetrated that dormant organ bodaprez has for a brain.
It should be stopped before evne one person gets on a plane to go there, but unless there is a last minute order, those 3,000 souls are going.
What are you seriously talking about? This so called “leader” and “president” has voted 3 times for radical late term and partial birth abortions! What makes you believe he cares about 3,000 US Military Troops or people of our country!! Wake up!!!!!!
For some reason, that study doesn’t model a full aerial quarantine.
It’s not surprising that an 80% air travel quarantine of affected countries merely delays spread off-continent. However, I’d be quite interested in seeing what a full air travel quarantine would do. I’m guessing it would be considerably more effective.
And yes – it can be done. And it should be so long as the outbreak is widespread and no effective treatment exists.
Recent history is littered with examples of how political expediency won out over ‘what should have been done’ – let’s hope we don’t wind up with as many corpses.
I think this is crazy. I’m a Navy veteran and your sending these troops there so they can contract ebola and bring it.back to their families,this is.crazy.
Is this going to be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt? 😀
It’s a bug hunt.
It is a very small finger in a very large dike.
Nothing more than a photo-op for a failed politician.
Let me offer an appropriate name for this proposed deployment:
Operation Massive Cluster
OMCF? Oh, I like Opreation AllEffdUp.
Hope they take their Doxy at double the standard dose– and that’s just to keep from getting Malaria.
It will be interesting to see if the EN assets come out of Active or USAR hide.
So, I’ve taken several weeks away from TAH, prompted, as it was, by my constant state of pissed-offedness. I all but stopped visiting the news for weeks, too, and listened maybe a total of 15 minutes to my favorite radio guy, Mark Levine. So, where did this approach get me? I’m not quite sure but I thought I’d test myself when I saw on the homepage a comment by “LC.” My thinking was, “Now, there’s a guy I can’t stomach. I bet that whatever the issue, he’ll be on Obama’s side. So I’ll start there.” Well, I wasn’t disappointed. Which brings me to my point: I can’t him or the news. But I can change my underwear. That’s all I got. Obama still sucks. Congress still sucks. 5/9 of the Supreme Court still sucks. BUT, most of people here who don’t. So, why should I deny myself that?
Welcome back. For what little it’s worth, I also think Obama and Congress suck.
Well, then, LC, I apologize. And thanks for the welcome back. I need to pace myself around here. I get so damned pissed off and frustrated at the news of the day that I just want to whack something. Well, maybe whack something is a poor choice of words…
Ex-: Yeah, bowling. I can get with the embroidered shirts but, otherwise, not so much.
Just don’t go bowling wearing a shirt w/a SEAL logo on it you don’t rate . . . . (smile)
Welcome back, amigo.
Okay, then, archery. With a crossbow and broadhead arrows.
Or full metal jousting. You need something to release that pent-up stuff. I don’t recommend flying kites, for example. Ironwork on an anvil is good – you get to pound things as hard as you can.
For a really good effort, bowl overhand.
You shouldn’t deny yourself anything. Neither should you let it get on your nerves. Find some wood to chop or something inanimate that you can take out your anger on.
Hell, even bowling gives you a target, doesn’t it?
I’ve increased my dojo time to 5 days a week.
If anything I have to thank Obama and the rest for my improved training.
One thing I miss from my youth… Heating the house entirely with wood stoves meant there was always a ready outlet for anger/aggression.
2/17 Air Cav…Man! It’s good to see you back. I missed you bud. You’re right though. You gotta pace yourself or like me, I get all wrapped around the axle over stuff and next thing I know, I’m type faster than I think sometimes. Hang in there and take care my friend.
B. Hussein 0bama is sending us where we have NO business being strictly for politics. If GOD forbid, some US personnel contract Ebola, will they get proper treatment, or “Take your Motrin, it’s all in your head!”?
Our borders are wide open, ISIS is gearing up to hit the US mainland, but B. Hussein 0bama sends the Military to Africa just before he goes golfing again…
Proud Infidel: last time I checked, there really is no “proper treatment” for Ebola. All they do is give fluids and make the poor guy/gal as comfortable as possible. Their body then either fights off the virus or they die.
For this current strain, less than half make it.
I’ve heard that as well. Apparently we Vets are expendable to B. hussein 0bama & Company as long as whatever they tell us to do gets them ahead in the polls, nothing else matters to those myrmidons!!
50% to 90% fatality rate.
And if one of our troops dies, how will the remains be handled? Even fire doesn’t destroy the virus.
Tag him, bag him and airdrop him in the south side of Chicago. Deliver him on the collective doorsteps of the Obama mafia. At least then his death will have a positive effect.
PH2
I think you are thinking of CJD.
Azygos: if you’re talking about mortality, Ex-PH2 is correct. If you’re talking about inactivation/destruction, you have a point. For Ebola strains descended from first strain to be discovered (Ebola/Zaire), that’s the mortality rate from past outbreaks. The virus mutates, so each outbreak has slightly different characteristics. Other strains of Ebola appear to be somewhat less lethal, having mortality rates “only” in the 30-50% range. The current outbreak appears to be an Ebola/Zaire variant (approx 98% genetically the same), so comparison here with Ebola/Zaire is proper. For the current outbreak, the mortality rate – defined as the number who become infected that die – appears to be about 55%. That’s consistent with past outbreaks of Ebola/Zaire, if towards the low end of the range. Finally, there currently is no effective treatment for Ebola. (Yes, there is an experimental serum that may help. Since it’s experimental, there aren’t production facilities in place – and it takes a few weeks to produce a single dose in the lab, so that doesn’t exactly do much good when you have several hundred sick.) Like someone who caught smallpox years ago, with Ebola an infected person is merely kept as comfortable as possible and given fluids until they either die or recover. But unlike smallpox, there’s at present no effective vaccine. With bats as the apparent natural reservoir, it could likely become both locally epidemic as well as endemic in this hemisphere if introduced. So keeping it out of this hemisphere is about the only realistic and effective preventive measure at present. Moving additional people unnecessarily in/out of the area is simply stupid. As cold and harsh as it sounds, what we need to do is ban all travel into the US by anyone who’s been to the African continent within the 3-week latency window. Period. No exceptions. And that means quarantining any persons who must travel to that continent on official business for 3 weeks on an offshore island prior to allowing them to return to the US mainland. This sh!t is not something we should take any chances with whatsoever. Like smallpox, it has… Read more »
Now, if one of our troops contracts Ebola from this mission will they be awarded a Purpleheart?
Workplace disease contraction, no Purple heart.
Our military is now healthcare for the world.
Somebody impeach the king already.
Jeez, do we really need 3000? How many people do we really need to ask a few thousand africans if their ‘vaginas hurt’ and give them a bottle of motrin? Hell, that’s so easy, they could even contract it over to me–I’d do it for just half of whatever this shit detail is projected to cost…
“Suck it up, chew on some more motrin.”
“You know, a good PT session might help clear that up.”
“here’s your no-shave chit”
David: Actually, my first response–that I deleted–was along that exact line, that I would more likely throw the ball at the pins.
And, Hondo, if I were to wear a SEAL anything, I would be compelled to turn surrender myself to Don’s hair. And I’m not ready for that.
Sparks: Yeah, I’m looking down, hands in pockets, shuffling my feet here.
Now, on to the Golfer in Mom Jeans and his ebola plan. First, I think HE ought to go to West Africa personally to show the world he means business. He can even take his clubs. A stroll through Liberia—a country whose existence 19th century America is responsible for—would be nice. He doesn’t have to stay long, just half as long as he has spent on the links and vacation while in office. So, that comes to what? A month or two? Three? Anyhow, that’s my take. Lead the way, Meester President, but don’t put our military in that worthless shithole. Hey, don’t get me wrong on this: I think that every country on the face of the earth ought to render assistance to stop the contagion. But, somehow, it always seems to default to America and her military to carry the load. What I would very much like to see is a long line of lefties signing up to do their part to help this effort. Hell, I’ll settle for a short line. Okay, two people will do.
Damn good to see you back Mr. 2/17 Air Cav. I’m glad you stayed in the pattern. Levin has a great website with freely available archives of all his past shows, just sayin 😉
Thanks, man. The first week of TAH withdrawl is the worst. I couldn’t allow myself even to peek, let alone lurk for fear of immediate relapse. I was even thinking of starting my own 12-Step program but that didn’t pan out. I was the only member.
Whoa. The do-gooders should love this plan. How about tuition remission for enrolled college students who volunteer to help curtail the spread of ebola in West Africa for some minimum length of time? Three months sounds about right, including the month-long return quarantine they will spend in, oh, San Francisco and Boston, depending upon whether their school is est or west of the Mississippi. Sure! Think about it. This is the way all of the hand wringers and teeth gnashers can actually show that they’re not all words and obama stickers. Whaddaya think?
I like it. Is there an iPhone app for that? Or maybe a very large all encompassing very helpful government enrollment website? I hope they throw a few hundred billion at it and see if it sticks.
Rather than San Francisco and Boston, I’d suggest the Aroostook County, ME, and either the Yakima Wilderness or Death Valley. Less chance of someone going “over the wall” and accidentally introducing Ebola (or some other nasty disease) into a large US urban center.
I’m sure those college students from Georgetown, Harvard, and Berkeley will sign right up in droves. And I’m equally sure those college will do their part by offering them 4 years of tuition forgiveness – without Federal reimbursement or tax breaks.
Damn, I can’t believe I got thru that last paragraph without falling out of my chair laughing.
The closest that any US military member should be to this mess is the back of a C-130 at altitude as a ‘chute drags a pallet off the ramp.
Meanwhile, can we volunteer some Code Pinkos to go offer assistance in lieu of the US military? That’s why they were in Congress today, right – declaring their mission readiness for front line medical service to Africa? Since ebola has no cure it shouldn’t matter if they have no medical credentials. They could entertain the sick people with their clown costumes.
The Pinkos can go off that ramp with the pallets. Whether they are tied down with baling wire or simply hang onto the pallet straps is negotiable.
“Meanwhile, can we volunteer some Code Pinkos to go offer assistance in lieu of the US military?”
AMEN!! I SECOND THAT!!
Kinda surprised about this considering that I read this from NPR about the outbreak. Also the DOD saying about the 25 bed hospital.
I hope my NG unit doesn’t get sent over there…sounds like BS…would hate to lose any good soldiers over there ‘fighting’ a disease…you know the end result will be us stamping it out over there, but bringing it back with us to infect our countrymen…not a doctor, but the idea sounds pretty risky and not just to the soldiers
I’m going to add 2 more cents to my already added 2 cents’ worth, right here. Some of you assume that ordering 3,000 troops to the hot zone to ‘fight’ ebola is done with evil intentions. I beg to differ. It is not. It is done with sheer stupdity and ignorance of the disease itself, the lethal rapidity with which it kills, and the mortality rate, which is 50% to 90%, depending on a victim’s resistance to it. As stated elsewhere by Sporkmaster (http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=55246&cpage=1#comment-1798026), this is not the kind of medical treatment that the military handles. Their venue is trauma, not epidemic diseases, not work in a hot zone, and certainly not enforcing quarantines in a hostile country populated by a large group of supersitious, uneducated and mostly poverty-stricken people who may see the supplies and arms brought in my US troops as something they can grab onto. Don’t give bodaprez credit for doing something evil. He has repeatedly demonstrated his consistent disconnect from the real world, his sheltered existence, and his out of touch persona in ways that have pissed off even one of his more ardent supporters, DiFi Feinstein of SanFran. His lack of comprehension and dimwitted approach to government, and his consistent ability to say and do the wrong thing at the wrong time are partly his own fault for his dependence on his pocket pet Jarrett and partly because he is lazy, stupid and a social moron. His first term in office was bad enough; this term, he’s been disintegrating since January last year. This isn’t evil. It’s stupidity. It is ignorance. Saying that he’s doing something evil gives him far too much credit. He couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag with a guide dog and a map. Every day, he says and/or does something that demonstrates clearly his disconnect from the real world that we all live in, the one that has us scrounging to pay the bills and put food on the table and wondering if there will be anything left over for a weekend trip to Lake Wobegon. If he… Read more »
Oh, I would not be nearly that generous, PH. Their consistent inappropriate use of the military is not due to stupidly but to willful ignorance, at best. Other possibilities are not nearly that innocuous.
I was doing my darndest to be nice, OWB. And it was difficult.
But wilfully doing stupid things is backfiring on him/them, which all of us can see, and he/they are trying to fix it now, too late. No one I know has short-term memory loss just yet.