Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The war on....Ebola?

 
 

 
 
"You have got to be kidding me!"
 
 
Just when think that things could not get stranger, more reckless, more dangerous, we now have a brand new HAIR BRAINED idea. Rather than commit seasoned troops to root out the growing evil that exists in Iraq and Syria, we are going to send America's finest into what some call a death zone. Yes, our Commander-in-Chief, who professes to hate war, has declared war on a virus. As such, he is committing 3,000 troops to the Ebola hot zone in Africa.

Now I believe there are very few things on this planet that scares people more than a hemorrhagic virus. And the one which is the best known is Ebola. It is bad, bad rice. This current outbreak is particularly vexing to the WHO (World Health Organization). Is spread through the touching or exchange of bodily fluids. Some can be saved, but most will not. Death by this wretched disease is gut wrenching to say the least.

Even with the best containment available, the disease continues to spread. It is now in five countries in Africa and has resulted in over 4,000 cases with over 2,000 deaths. Some experts are now predicting, should the disease continue to spread (and maybe mutate), the number of cases could exceed 1/4 million by the end of the year. Ebola outbreaks in the past have resulted in a few hundred cases at best.

So why would our Administration send our war fighters over to an Ebola hot zone? That is not what they were trained for. Excuse me for being crude, but our soldiers are trained to kill people and break things in a time of war. It is just that simple. They are not trained to be nation builders or doctors.

The decision has now been made to send 3,000 of our finest into Africa to fight a disease. All this while the evil and ruthless ISIS continues to grow. Some think that ISIS is already on our southern border. How will we know that this disease will not mutate to airborne transmission and infect our troops? How will we know that the latency period will not increase, allowing our troops to be inadvertent carriers back to the homeland?

This is yet one more hair brained idea coming from an Administration which does not have much time for our military. I am very grateful that I don't have a son or daughter who was selected to go on this mission. I might end up saying something regrettable.

Our soldiers and sailors are trained to fight. Our doctors are trained to heal. Most Presidents understand and respect the difference between the two. This one does not.

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