The Pentagon is ratcheting up plans for the long-term deployment of some 4,000 troops into West Africa to fight against the Ebola virus. As more details emerge, the plan appears increasingly haphazard.
Troops preparing for deployment to the Ebola front will be given only a single four-hour training session to transition from their usual soldiering to a campaign against a virus.
Troops are being told that what they’re going to face in Liberia and neighboring nations is “much worse” than Afghanistan, though officials continue to downplay the chances of troops actually contracting Ebola.
The troops are still getting those full body protective suits the trainers are wearing though, right? Not at all, according to the Pentagon they’re going to get just the gloves and in some cases the face mask.
Because of the enormous risk of exposure, they’re being told to avoid shaking hands or touching anyone while they’re overseas, and to only eat and drink things that were provided by the military.
President Obama issued an executive order on Thursday authorizing the deployment on National Guard as well as military forces to Liberia, though the Pentagon says they don’t have any specific plans on sending National Guard forces there at this time.
Think it was a story about Britain and a plague. Frustrated at the progress of an enemy that wouldn't show it's face except in the expressions of the dead and dying, Limeys seriously fired cannons at whatever-it-was. Over there, I suppose. That was probably before germ theory… Glad to see 'we've' 'progressed.'
…what exactly will they be doing again? Are they actually persuaded it's productive? Who selected them for this? What are they offering that locals can't?
Seem to remember it's actually illegal to encourage mutiny, desertion, or fragging. And because of that I never will. …but surely there are missions where it's best to do it early and often. Or maybe much more early than so often. …kinda like after Hamburger Hill. Only before it.
If "official" statements are to be believed, US troops will be acting as heavily armed traffic cops and construction workers, although it does seem a little hard to swallow that none of the local population is fit to perform those jobs. My guess is that the real purpose has something to do with getting or keeping money and/or power, the only things that really matter to our so called "leaders."
And how long will they be there? And when and where are they coming back? Knowing how things are being handled, I suspect they will be flown back on civilian flights. Once at home they will be handed a bunch of cash and told to enjoy their vacations, with no further instructions. Then they'll travel elsewhere in the US. And suddenly you get Ebola elsewhere in the US, and some Pentagon clown goes on TV eventually admitting they mishandled the lives of the Ebola troops.
While opposed to deploying American soldiers as health care workers or even construction site personnel it is nonetheless hard to get in sync with the sneers about only 4 hours of training to avoid contracting the disease. Why should it take longer? Commonsense is more an attitude than a postdoctoral degree program.
You tell a boy to wash his hands before coming to the table. Will you have more luck by having him write "I shall wash my hands before eating" a hundred times? If that fails will a thousand times do the trick? There are limits to the efficacy of training. Simple things do not need extended repetitions.
The inculcation of adequate and/or viable safety precautions may not even need four hours of training. I do not know but have not seen a shred of evidence that four hours are inadequate to cover the material.
Of course my faith in the competence of the education industry is not high. Just look at the American government. It is without doubt the most highly credentialed government work force of all time, most especially in the public schools, yet the product across the board gets shabbier every year. When my grandmother sent toddlers off to the prison system known as schools she would admonish them, "Remember, no amount of education can cure true ignorance."
The real danger to the troops wrongfully deployed in Africa is not a lack of training, but the lack of implementing that training. One can only pray that the men there have the will and discipline to protect themselves. Our lives, not just their lives, depend upon it.
" …have not seen a shred of evidence that four hours are inadequate to cover the material"
That is justifying a position based on the impossibility of proving a negative. It's men with reckless attitudes like this that are responsible for the pointless death of thousands US soldiers in America's many and various foreign adventures.
No, four hours is not enough training. And everything you wrote contradicts your claim that it is.
1. No claim that 4 hours is adequate was made.
2."No. four hours…" Without presenting credentials your opinions have no standing.
3. All that was said is that reckless assertions about inadequacy of training do not shed light on the problem. Classroom hours do not translate into sufficiency without an understanding of the scope of the problem which could be bigger or smaller than the public's understanding. Off the cuff fear mongering is not helpful.
4. All I have read is bald assertions about four hours of training with no evidence or reasoning whatsoever one way or the other.
Come on America, be yourself. Just bomb the shit out of the whole region and maybe you'll get the virus, rest is collateral damage. Wasn't that your MO fore the last 13 years?
Just curious, but will these troops be carrying weapons – instead of full body protective suits? I seem to have missed the memo declaring the US military as the First Responders for any crisis anywhere in the world. If Matilda in Adelaide has a gas attack, send in the Marines…
This is a job for medical and relief workers, not the US military. Of course, if the USG didn't spend trillions of $$$$ making dead people and broken infrastructure there'd be more money to support the medical and relief workers who should be responding to this disease.
As for the training issue… 4 hours should be sufficient although since they've lowered recruitment standards to fill the billets one should never bank in people being able to follow simple directions.
Poe's Law: Without a blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of extremism or fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.
There could be a valid role for the US military if it sends the Navy hospital ships. I find it strange that no one ever talks about them. They could be on station in short order, I should hope. Certainly faster than the Army trying to build canvas hospitals in mud.
Other countries have hospital ships, too. Why don't they put them to use, if they are really serious about this epidemic?
Could it be that perhaps the rest of the world doesn't care about a bunch of sick (and poor and hard-to-exploit) Africans? Naw, that can't be it.
Throw bodies at it. They really just don't care. Could it it be any more blatant?
More double handfuls of crap to be thrown at the wall to see what sticks.
Obviously, it's all about making the US military look soft and cuddly so that the next military occupation of some resource-rich African country will go down more smoothly.
And Cuba sending in 200 trained specialist which are doctors and not solders.
How exactly are they going to "fight" ebola?
Shoot it in the heart?
They'll probably a lot safer than washing off in a KBR constructed shower.
Or camping in an Iraqi factory full of chromium compounds.
Or setting up tents downwind from "burn pits"
Or handling DU rounds
etc….