US Sending 3,000 Troops to Africa to Battle Ebola

[Sdiver]

Let's hope they don't bring any more of them back here.

US Sending 3,000 Troops to Africa to Battle Ebola

The U.S. military will send 3,000 troops to the heart of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and devote air assets to delivering medical supplies and personnel as part of a stepped up effort to battle the epidemic that has claimed more than 2,100 lives in West Africa, the White House announced late Monday night.

U.S. Africa Command will coordinate the response that will be led by a general officer from U.S. Army Africa and will operate from a Joint Force Command to be set up in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. The general who will lead the effort was not named Monday night.

Most of the 3,000 troops who will deploy will operate from a regional intermediate staging base in Liberia "to facilitate and expedite the transportation of equipment, supplies and personnel" in the effort to bring the virus under control, the White House said.

The Army Corps of Engineers was also expected to be involved in helping to construct and expand treatment facilities.

The overall effort will "leverage the unique capabilities of the U.S. military to help bring the epidemic under control," according to a White House statement. "These efforts will entail command and control, logistics expertise, training and engineering support."

The details of the plan are scheduled to be announced by President Obama in a visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The White House announcement followed weeks of criticism from aid groups and African governments for the lack of an adequate response by the U.S. to the Ebola epidemic which has hit hardest in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Cases have also been reported in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last week, the Pentagon said that $22 million was being allotted to build a 25-bed field hospital in Liberia solely for the treatment of health care workers. Military personnel who set up the field hospital would leave immediately after it was operational, Pentagon officials said.

Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the commitment of $22 million for a small field hospital was "deeply disappointing" given the scope of the spreading Ebola epidemic.

"There is no organization on the planet that can mobilize or handle actual logistics better than the U.S. military," Garrett said.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday rejected the criticism. The U.S. has invested more than $150 million to controlling the epidemic and "the CDC has responded commensurate to the seriousness" of the crisis, Earnest said.

At meetings in Washington earlier this month, officials of the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola outbreak could be stopped in six-to-nine months but only with a "massive" international response.

"We don't have enough health workers, doctors, nurses, drivers, and contact tracers" to handle the increasing number of cases, said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO Assistant Director-General for Global Health Security.


http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...tle-ebola.html

[LarryW]

OMG, 3,000 Boots on the Ground? Oh, wait...they'll just be building hospitals and driving buses.

Right...

Stay safe and shoot straight, y'all. Keep the shiny side up. God be with you.

[ChuckG]

Don't need to put our troops at risk. Send in a bunch of bleeding heart liberals. They love these kind of causes. And keep our troops for fighting our wars.

[Paragrouper]

Originally Posted by ChuckG

Don't need to put our troops at risk. Send in a bunch of bleeding heart liberals. They love these kind of causes. And keep our troops for fighting our wars.

Bleeding heart liberals don't actually participate--just pontificate.

[cbtengr]

Surely the administration is putting together a coalition to handle this outbreak.

[MR2]

I was thinking we should start-up a combat sandal company and take advantage of the no boots on the ground fad.

[Scimitar]

Originally Posted by ChuckG

Don't need to put our troops at risk. Send in a bunch of bleeding heart liberals. They love these kind of causes. And keep our troops for fighting our wars.

Good relationship building in an AO were we're fighting a pretty real PR war, no?

S

[rubberneck]

POTUS is willing to put boots on the ground in a worthless hell hole with an Ebola outbreak and no clear national interest but he isn't willing to send 3000 troops to take the fight to ISIS. Makes sense.

[LarryW]

Originally Posted by MR2

I was thinking we should start-up a combat sandal company and take advantage of the no boots on the ground fad.

http://www.combatflipflops.com/

...and...

http://www.extremeoutfitters.us/comb...reorder-1.aspx

[LarryW]

I don’t know how to feel about this. I mean, I ain't Moses or Aaron but I'm stuck somewhere in the congregation…

Bond of brothers: Ex-soldiers enlist Afghans to craft military themed flip-flops

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...lip-flops?lite

By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

Whether fighting Taliban in the remote mountain valleys of Afghanistan or snowboarding down a double-black-diamond run in the Cascade range, you want your brothers with you. And the same goes for starting a small business selling flip-flops inspired by military service and the Afghan people.

That’s why West Point graduate-turned beachwear entrepreneur Matthew Griffin, his brother in-arms Donald Lee and brother-in-law, Andrew Sewrey, joined together to deliver a new twist on beach footwear -- Combat Flip Flops.

Griffin and Lee served two tours as special ops Army Rangers in Afghanistan together from 2003 to 2006. Lee also was involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The idea for Combat Flip Flops, which sells high end togs with names like the AK-17 for men and Bombshell Light for women, is headquartered in a one-car garage a stone’s throw from a salmon stream in the foothills outside Seattle. It started like many things in that part of the country do, with a cup of coffee.

In 2010, Griffin had returned to Kabul as a medical training and equipment supplier to the Afghan military when he met an American who managed a shoe factory at a business conference. The factory was set up by Afghan families who’d been running shoe factories for years and were able to obtain U.S. government contracts to make footwear for the U.S. military.

(Cont.)

[JMonty]

Originally Posted by MR2

I was thinking we should start-up a combat sandal company and take advantage of the no boots on the ground fad.

Follow the Roman Legionnaire approach? That would make for some great marketing.

[PokemonMaster]

Originally Posted by MR2

I was thinking we should start-up a combat sandal company and take advantage of the no boots on the ground fad.

I think this is a great move. We can cull the virus before it mutates which is great for the whole planet. We can also show them that our money is better than Chinese money. We can get a few contracts bases out of this.

[Box]

a continuation of our f-troop foreign policy

[The Reaper]

Great idea.

What could go wrong here?

Maybe we should staff it with Peace Corps personnel after we get our troops out.

They might enjoy a brief vacation with Boko Haram before Ebola gets them.

TR

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Great idea.

What could go wrong here?

Maybe we should staff it with Peace Corps personnel after we get our troops out.

They might enjoy a brief vacation with Boko Haram before Ebola gets them.

TR

Well seeing that most of the military votes with the GOP it's a grand idea.

10-15 million new undocumented democrats about to be given amnesty, welfare, free medical and education. Sounds fair to me.

I'm going to clean weapons, it's almost time to start voting from the rooftops.........