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  • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 5 months ago
    How about the best reason of all.

    They are our servicemen/servicewomen and deserve better treatment than being guinea pigs for political agendas.

    This is the type of thing the WHO is supposed to deal with.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 5 months ago
      hi tech. It could be argued that this is national security issue. I see the temptation. soldiers follow orders. They are trained to work well and quickly in teams. We have systems in place to deploy them quickly. We also have highly trained medical units. But I agree with Reason, they gobble up lots of resources. If those resources were available in the private sector, you'd have greater efficiency. and frankly, I'm not trusting the CDC right now. they're being bunglers. and a political hack as czar of ebola? pahleez
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      • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 5 months ago
        1. If the hot zones were quarantined as they should have been, there would be no national security issue for us from Ebola.

        2. It is not OUR responsibility to provide any or all resources to deal with this in Africa or anywhere else outside our own borders. We have no obligation at all on that front. We provide more than enough of the UN budget to be on the hook for this too. Heck considering the actions of the UN we should be giving them exactly $0 and serving them a vacate order for their complex.

        What private sector entity would you designate that is not corrupt?
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        • Posted by 9 years, 5 months ago
          "What private sector entity would you designate that is not corrupt?"

          I'm not sure I understand your question. There are plenty of bio-tech firms that are not crony who want to be at the forefront of this. They could figure it out, but are they allowed in? I defer to experts. Let's find some private sector ones to balance the govt nonsense we're getting
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          • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 5 months ago
            Then the bio-tech companies can certainly go get involved. There is money to be made on effective treatments, vaccines, etc on all viral diseases. They can invest their own money on this.

            It is another country they do not need US permission to do so.

            Even more importantly they do not need US funding to go get involved, do research, whatever they want to do.

            The only countries that can grant or refuse permission are the affected ones. Not the US, the UN or anyone else.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 5 months ago
    #4. THIS ISN'T WHAT WE TRAIN THE MILITARY TO DO.

    Specialization in jobs is there for an important reason: efficiency.

    Also, not sure if you're aware, but the unit that Obama sent over are crack troops - not just run-of-the-mill soldiers. These guys are the ones who should be held in reserve or deployed to fight ISIS.
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    • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 5 months ago
      More basic than that.

      Every single service member gets required training in how to survive in a hostile environment (NBC). In this respect, they have more effective training to protect themselves around Ebola than health care workers in general do. And the services keep the required supplies on hand for limited duration use. Key words LIMITED DURATION.

      That does not however, mean the military should be used for this ... period. It is outside their mission. And frankly we have no compelling interest to use our military to do this.

      Full on NBC training covers a lot more things than simply self protection in a hostile environment, and is not given to every service member. I went through it back in the day, but there were only a handful of us in my entire command and we then became training resources for everyone else. We did retraining and graded performance of the rest of the command periodically too, but not every person was trained in every facet of NBC. That is one of the things the military believes in doing, adequate training and keeping said training current.

      The fact that training in epidemiology safety practices is not commonly done to health care workers is a failure in the health care industry/system. Even if they had been trained the requisite materials for their use would likely not be present in the quantities needed either. Training and supplies both cost money and time.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 5 months ago
      actually, that isn't true. All of the services have specially trained units that are well equipped to work in these kinds of conditions. You can argue that those aren't the troops we sent over there or that it is not how we should be using those units, but this isn't a new function for the military.
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      • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 5 months ago
        The specific unit Obama sent over is the 101st Airborne. These are our rapid-response troops that handle situations too big for a special ops team. But their primary mission and specialty is combat - not humanitarian relief or disease control - see http://www.army.mil/info/organization/un....

        Yes, there are specific units of each wing of the military which specialize in different aspects. My point was that of all the teams he could have sent, he picked a COMBAT-oriented team that would probably be better suited in a COMBAT role.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 9 years, 5 months ago
    Our military should be training our hospital personnel and NGOs in how to handle serious biological hazards. Our military is well-equipped and trained to handle NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) threats under combat conditions, so that valuable knowledge can be passed along, and is more applicable that the failed protocols developed by the incompetent CDC.
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  • Posted by samrigel 9 years, 5 months ago
    It also further erodes the drive and initiative of the respective West Africa Gov't to step up and take care of their own peoples. If someone else is doing the dirty work why should they................Hmmmmm sounds familiar!!!
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    • Posted by Snoogoo 9 years, 5 months ago
      I agree, and how is it not belittling to the African people to assume that they are not capable of building a decent hospital or taking care of their own? They have the same physical and mental capacity as the West, so there is no reason to not do it themselves. It's too bad it takes a natural disaster to realize what you need to work on, but that is historically what incites large groups of people to action.
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      • Posted by evlwhtguy 9 years, 5 months ago
        You are correct....but they cannot in fact build a hospital or deal with this in the way a western country does. Their way appears to be to steal and misappropriate funds the western powers send and watch the population die.
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 5 months ago
    When are we going to get it through our damned heads that fighting against letting failed civilizations fail on their own is a fruitless exercise and actually harmful to us. We don't owe those victims one US death. We owe ourselves protection from them.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 5 months ago
    This is Not the job of the military. It is a misuse of American assets and a diminishing of the real reason a military exists, which is to defend the Constitution by force of arms; in other words, kill people and break things. It was never devised to substitute for a charitable organization or a medical auxiliary force. Using it in this way is like using a howitzer instead of a pistol. A waste of resources.
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    • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 5 months ago
      +1

      Also, missions like this will have a negative impact on recruitment for the military.

      Signing up or re-enlisting to defend your country in combat is one thing, getting sent to a disease hot zone for no good national security reason is something else entirely.

      Although on second thought, this would not make much difference right now since the current administration is RIFing experienced service people.
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  • Posted by term2 9 years, 5 months ago
    We have no business sending in anyone at taxpayer expense to "fight" some disease in another place. We have enough problems right here to work on. Also, to send in troops whose training is to kill people in hopes they can stop some epidemic they arent trained for is stupid
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  • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 5 months ago
    Well, once the decision is made to help, the military becomes the obvious means to provide aid due to its ability to rapidly deploy, its logistical, engineering, and medical capabilities, and its ability to better secure its own units in countries where security could become an issue.

    Whether or not we should send aid at all is a different question. We are though. In fact, the first units are crossing the Atlantic even as I type this. I know one of the senior officers who will be there.

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  • Posted by evlwhtguy 9 years, 5 months ago
    The main reason that our military shouldnt be there is tha we dont have a dog in the hunt. No allies, no national interest. In point point of fact if the whole continent of Africa sank in to the ocean it would only reduce US national expenditures. It would not hurt us one bit. We might miss diomonds from south africa and a little oil from Liberia but other than that the whole continent is nothing but a cesspool in to which our guilt filled looter politicians occasionally throw our money in to. They do this to make themselves feel better by assuaging their feelings of guilt for being born white and therby having the "original sin" of racism.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 9 years, 5 months ago
    our troops should not be used for mop-ups like this,
    except as trainers for locals who carry the workload.
    that's my view, and I'm sticking to it. -- j

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  • Posted by jpellone 9 years, 5 months ago
    It is not the job of the 101st Airborne to help combat Ebola. There are times when the military has been used for relief such as after a typhoon or tidal wave to provide water and medical relief. Aircraft carriers can provide these very important functions but they are not equipped for the present relief!!! If the military is to be used in this particular job, it should be to keep people out of our country to stop the spread of this killer virus!!!
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 5 months ago
    I can already think of one U.S. company that ought to step up to the plate, if they want to protect their own investment in a country other than their country of registry:

    Bridgestone America, a/k/a "Firestone."

    They already had to take some hard measures to carve out an island of health in a sea of disease. If they don't want to risk that disease breaking through to their plantation again, let them offer such aid, or abandon their property. And that goes for any other company who has any sort of mining or farming operation in the stricken region.
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