Obama to Send 3,000 troops to Tackle Ebola

The United States announced on Tuesday that it would send 3,000 troops to help tackle the Ebola outbreak as part of a ramped-up response including a major deployment in Liberia, the country where the epidemic is spiraling fastest out of control.

The U.S. response to the crisis, to be formally unveiled later by President Barack Obama, includes plans to build 17 treatment centers, train thousands of healthcare workers and establish a military control center for coordination, U.S. officials told reporters.

Obama to Send 3,000 troops to Tackle Ebola

Well, move over ISIS. There's another crisis. More than 2,400 people dead out of 4,784 cases as of last week - the counts are woefully incomplete, and Ebola's still spreading.

Scientists know that even the best hi-tech bio-lab has nothing on Mother Nature. The longer Ebola spreads in West Africa, and the more human hosts it infects, the more likely it is to develop airborne abilities. Not a good thing for humanity. As it stands, the best projections estimate 277,000 cases by the end of the year. That's a lot of mutations. Definitely past time to pull out the big guns.

The World Health Organization has said it needs foreign medical teams with 500-600 experts as well as at least 10,000 local health workers, numbers that may rise if the number of cases increases, as it is widely expected to.

So far Cuba and China have said they will send medical staff to Sierra Leone. Cuba will deploy 165 people in October while China is sending a mobile laboratory with 59 staff to speed up testing for the disease. It already has 115 staff and a Chinese-funded hospital there.

But Liberia is where the disease appears to be running amok. The WHO has not issued any estimate of cases or deaths in the country since Sept 5 and its Director-General Margaret Chan has said there is not a single bed available for Ebola patients there.

Liberia, a nation founded by descendants of freed American slaves, appealed for U.S. help last week.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the charity that has been leading the fight against Ebola, said it was overwhelmed and repeated its call for an immediate and massive deployment.

"We are honestly at a loss as to how a single, private NGO is providing the bulk of isolation units and beds," MSF's international president Joanne Liu said in a speech to the United Nations in Geneva, adding that the charity was having to turn away sick people in Monrovia.

"Highly infectious people are forced to return home, only to infect others and continue the spread of this deadly virus. All for a lack of international response," she said.

He should have started with spec ops troops on the ground to gather intel on ebola, followed by targeted airstrikes against its infrastructure. A psy-Ops campaign could then be used to weaken support for ebola, and finally an amphibious Marine assault on the fortified ebola palace, with hovercraft.

If we don't stop ebola now, it'll be in our cities, our schools, and our churches.

a reply to: soficrow

Just great. Lets send people over that can get infected and bring it back....just freakin great.

ALL* the help is appreciated, also may be a good way to keep an eye out in case some think of weaponizing the infection...

Good LUCK to all who may be sent for you are providing EA*RTH ANGEL works for the species of man.

Thanks & be safe

a reply to: SirKonstantin

I take it you'd rather wait til it goes airborne and gets here? Maybe with the oil execs and roughnecks? Or the mining execs? ....You know, the guys who travel back and forth to West Africa all the time to make money, and may or may not be exposed. [The execs use company jets and fly into and out of private airports - but the grunts use public flights. Always have.]

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Said it somewhere else - even the best hi-tech bio-lab has nothing on Mother Nature. Once this bug goes through a 100,000 people it will be weaponized - courtesy natural evolutionary processes.

originally posted by: ZeroReady
He should have started with spec ops troops on the ground to gather intel on ebola, followed by targeted airstrikes against its infrastructure. A psy-Ops campaign could then be used to weaken support for ebola, and finally an amphibious Marine assault on the fortified ebola palace, with hovercraft.

If we don't stop ebola now, it'll be in our cities, our schools, and our churches.

lol. Thanks for the chuckle. And you're right...

If we don't stop ebola now, it'll be in our cities, our schools, and our churches.

I'm sitting kind of horrified at the thought of an ebola outbreak on one of the navy ships!

Not a pleasant thought!

If you can't fight terrorism, fight epidemics.

I guess.

Really, sending 3,000 troops there (can you imagine being one of those 3,000?) is a really bad idea, in my opinion. No, thank you, Mr. President.

a reply to: kalunom

Aside from the fact that USAMRIID and Fort Dettrick have a long, long history working with dangerous diseases, including Ebola - our military is arguably the best coordinator in the world. If anyone can pull the whole effort into shape, and get all the partners working together on the same page, it's the US Military who can do the job.

a reply to: soficrow

You forgot gun runners and US weapons dealers.

Those types tend to mix with the more unsavoury crowd too.

a reply to: soficrow

I would go ahead and lock down Africa. One Continent or the Entire World? Yes, this is very cruel, and if i was in Africa, i would expect it and prepare. I would stay far away from people. and Wait it out. I am a survivalist and would understand that after a year of Africa cut off from the world, that it will bounce back stronger than before.

a reply to: soficrow


ever see first hand their navel excercises? I haven't either but my son's ship has been in more than a few. He has told me many stories of them ramming each other accidentally during them.
I'm not so confident when it comes to their coordination skills!

a reply to: SirKonstantin

If anyone who knew anything thought that quarantine might work, they would have tried it. Quarantine doesn't work.

Besides, all the money-grubbers would think it was safe when the epidemic ended - go back for the gold, get infected and bring the all-new super-mutated strain out to the world anyway.

Fact is, we have to stop it there. Now.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Are you actually suggesting the Napalm Solution?!? ...'Cuz besides humans and bats, Ebola infects monkeys, apes, dogs, pigs, antelope, and more. And you wanna kill 'em all? ...eeuuuwwww.

Here's a map showing the Ebola-carrier fruit bat range.

a reply to: soficrow

Your right. But what is the best way to stop this? Bombs?

Does this mean that Obama is trying to get rid of all of our soldiers? Just think what would happen if this disease got into our military.

Putting the people who protect our country from the evil of men into battle with nature which has superior weaponry is not a good idea.

Shouldn't we be sending all of the corrupt doctors there, leaving the good ones here? Right now we are letting the humane ones go there, we need to send the ones that don't listen to their patients.

a reply to: SirKonstantin

They already know what to do - but do not have the resources - isolate infected patients, track their contacts, isolate them too. If you quarantine areas, you just ensure that everyone will be exposed. ...Needs manpower, supplies, equipment for follow through.