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Declares Ebola Greater Threat Than Islam, Pulls Troops Away From
Counter-Terror Missions To Send 3,000 To Africa: ‘Military’s #1 Priority
Is Combating Ebola’
Sep 16, 2014 0 Comments Darby Crash
More troops on the ground “fighting” (whatever the hell that means) ebola than ISIS…developing…
Excerpted from The Daily Mail: The Fox News Channel reported on Sunday that the U.S. military’s emphasis on Ebola prevention, driven by President Barack Obama, has stretched thin most if not all of its other missions.
A senior military official told Fox that General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a recent meeting that ‘the Department of Defense’s number one priority is combating Ebola.’
The network’s source commented that ‘we don’t need to be taking planners away from the CT [counter-terrorism] mission, and that is what is going on.’
The Fox News Channel reported on Sunday that the U.S. military’s emphasis on Ebola prevention, driven by President Barack Obama, has stretched thin most if not all of its other missions.
A senior military official told Fox that General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a recent meeting that ‘the Department of Defense’s number one priority is combating Ebola.’
The network’s source commented that ‘we don’t need to be taking planners away from the CT [counter-terrorism] mission, and that is what is going on.’
Defense spending is down 21 per cent since 2010, the first fiscal year for which the Obama administration presided over the federal budget.
But the president is insisting that the military carry much of the burden in Africa.
In a Sept. 7 interview on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ he called it a ‘national security priority.’
‘If we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa, but other parts of the world, there’s the prospect then that the virus mutates, it becomes more easily transmittable, and then it could be a serious danger to the United States,” said Obama.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest fielded questions Monday about the threat that a mutated Ebola virus could endanger the American population.
‘Right now,’ Earnest said, ‘the risk of an Ebola outbreak in the United States is very low. But that risk would only increase if there were not a robust response on the part of the United States.’
The United States government is sending thousands of military troops to the west African nation of Liberia as part of the Obama administration’s Ebola virus-response strategy, the White House said late Monday night.
‘U.S. Africa Command will set up a Joint Force Command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to provide regional command and control support to U.S. military activities and facilitate coordination with U.S. government and international relief efforts,’ a statement from the White House press office said.
‘A general from U.S. Army Africa, the Army component of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), will lead this effort, which will involve an estimated 3,000 U.S. forces.’
Liberia is the hardest-hit of the four west African nations that have confirmed Ebola cases, accounting for more than one-half of the fatalities. The others are Sierra Leone, Guinea and, to a lesser extent, Nigeria.
Some of what America’s armed personnel will do in Liberia is unclear. The White House said ‘many’ of them will be stationed at an ‘intermediate staging base’ where they will supervise the movement of medical staff, supplies and heavy equipment.
AFRICOM already warns its own personnel that they should ‘avoid nonessential travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.’
And the Defense Department is concerned, one Pentagon official told MailOnline, about the public perceptions aroused when American G.I.s patrol ground zero in a disease outbreak that could plunge three or more countries into chaos if it worsens significantly.
Combat soldiers and Marines ‘will be on hand and ready for anything,’ said the official, who has knowledge of some, but not all, of the Ebola-related planning. ‘But hopefully it will be all logistics and hospital-building.’
‘The president has ordered us to help, and we’re eager to do it,’ he said. ‘Now it looks like we’re going to be the lead dog, and that’s bound to make a lot of people nervous. It’s understandable.’ Read the whole thing
Read more at http://patdollard.com/2014/09/obama-declares-ebola-greater-threat-than-islam-pulls-troops-away-from-counter-terror-mission-to-send-3000-to-africa-militarys-1-priority-is-combating-ebola/#jtGYOHAFSyEvI8lo.99
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