Bush wants right to use military if bird flu hits

My Way News ^ | Oct 4, 2:50 PM (ET) | Charles Aldinger

[tjbravo]

President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic.

He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection.

"If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference.

"It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?" Bush added.

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

[43north]

I tend to agree with freeeeeee on this one, Nate.

Kennel cough is a problem for mostly young and old dogs but middle aged ones can get it too. I have a good friend who is a veterinarian and he recommends that any dogs who are going to be kenneled be vaccinated against this illness (with nose drops - better wear a rain coat!).

That being said, it is rarely if ever fatal.

[Nathan Zachary]

My wife was just saying that maybe it is that dog flu that started out somewhere around there. Starts of like kennel cough but it isn't, and has now spread to horses. I don't recall the news story though.

16 people have now died from that flu in Toronto... Might be something there! They have a big Asian population in Toronto, many in the health care business. they still don't know what it is according to the news.

My wife also works in the healthcare business, and talk of quarantine proccedure is going around at her hospital.

[Nathan Zachary]

Thats the way it is supposed to work, but in a pandemic the Health Departments and first responders are also the first ones to go down from sickness as well. Then what?
Once you loose the hospitals you have big trouble. Once all these people are dead, you have no-one giving care. People run through the hospitals looking for someone to help, it becomes completely contaminated and useless, and it just snowballs from there. What's left is military style moble hospitals and you can re establich a quarantine system and keep your people from getting sick.
look what happened in Toronto with that Sars scare. It shut dowen their hospital.

[panaxanax]

Nathan Zachary said..."Gook luck. But I'll tell you right now, when everyone is dying around you because they CAN'T get any help, you'll be singing a different tune. Help me! my wife is dying, help me my kids are dying. and what if YOU die, and your wife dies, and your kid is sitting there wiwth your 2 corpses rotting, and can't go anywhere? You just don't understand the nature of a pandemic on this scale. At best, you'll live until you run out of food and water. But in a town full of rotting copses, you won't want to. Where will you go? Any town that DOESN'T have the plague, you can be sure they will have their people shooting anyone comming near it." End quote.

Where the hell did all that come from? Who said anything about not helping other people? Please increase your meds and call your Dr. in the morning........immediately!

[panaxanax]

"It's nice to hear at least one other person is concerned. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else cares."

Sometimes I feel the same way, then I come to Free Republic and see that we are not alone. Hang in there.

[roaddog727]

"While they make have the best intentions, their version of "help" may be highly detrimental to people in the quarantine area, so that other areas are spared."

Spot on.

From a "National" perspective, if a town in infected with some highly contagious, fatal bio-hazard, that town will be quarantined. If the entire town succumbs to this bio-hazard and through quarantine, the country survives, that is in the best interest of the country at large, even if the casualty count is on the order of hundreds of thousands - as compared to a total population of 300,000,000. Essentially, you have a casualty count of under 0.5%.

[processing please hold]

Hard choices will be made should that scenario come to pass. God help the person who has to live with that choice, but I will understand it had to be done.

[roaddog727]

This is not a decision I would want to have to make.

[Don_Ret_USAF]

So the military are super medics no one gets sick or dies when they show up. Get a life. They are just as human as you and I. Sure they may fair better because of coming in late in the game and maybe there shots are up to date. But you are saying what I said. Use the military medical not the military guns. What would you do IF you had a tank coming head on down one of our streets. This is not acceptable to me.
Get off the New Orleans kick. You think the rest of the USA is an exact clone of what went wrong in N.O. Think Again.
Right all Canada went up in flames. Did the Royal Canadian Army, Air Force, and Navy rush in And Save Canada? You are talking about Just the hospitals in Toronto. Ever been their. They have more then one or two. Nice city lived there many years back. The SARs did not shut down the rest of Canada. Canada survived as will we.

I see that the 1918 out break was the bird flu. So maybe some one is already at work to prevent its spread. Let us hope so. We beat Polo, Small Pox, we will beat Bird Flu.

[processing please hold]

Me either.

[43north]

Yes we did beat polio, smallpox, and most TB cases (except for all of the new ones our Mexican, South American, and Asian friends are bringing with them - thank you El Presidente Bush and your border sieve - but "bird flu" is a completely different animal.

This spreads SO fast and is SO virulent that is is way beyond our experience with "normal" illnesses. It is like nothing you have seen in your lifetime. I have been involved with cases of people who died within less than 36 hours from infections but these have been bacterial, not viral, and were confined to individuals, not whole groups. This sure makes you realize your own mortality like nothing else ever will.

I once attended a middle-aged man with gas gangrene. He got it through a cut on his thumb from working in his garden. Soil bacteria. Very common in WW I. We could not get steroids and antibiotics into him fast enough before all of his blood clotted within his veins. There are still many things that modern medicine CAN NOT deal with successfully. Life is STILL a sexually transmitted condition that is invariably fatal.

You really should do a Google search for "1918 flu". Read the account of the young physician from Deetroit that was at Camp Devens in Massacheusetts (before it became a communist colony). It will scare you silly to realize an infectious disease can be that bad. The 1918 flu would eat Ebola, Marburg, and HIV for lunch and still not be satiated.

None of us in the medical profession are "super medics". We are people just like you and are susceptible to the same illnesses. Listen to us when we tell you that this could be bad - VERY BAD - and if we have to temporarily inconvenience the tin hat crowd by bringing in the military to help the most people to survive - then that is just the way it is. I hope it never comes to that but if it does, I want the most military medics by my side that the military can spare. They are the best and they will be needed.

[The Last Rebel]

"I didn't see the military anywhere back in the 40's AND 50'S. When as a child we had TB,measles, mumps,polo,whooping cough,scarlet fever, flu, small pox, chicken pox, and I could go on and on with the listing. We made it. The local health departments had good control of any quarantines. Families and friends worked together to support the quarantined. Now this is just one small town that I lived in. But I bet this was going on all over the country. We didn't have chicken Little's running all over the place shouting "the sky is falling". Military must be kept out of any quarantine illness, except for possible medical help. But physical surround a town or city with tanks, Humvee, and arm solders is an act of war. This could led to very sad results. No! Posse Comitatus.MUST STAND AS IS AND NOT BE SCRAPED OR DELUTED!!!"


That was a time when men were men and people didn't have the "the government will take care of me" attitude".

Unfortunatly, all the expanding goevernment programs have accomplished their goal--most americans are now sheep in bug government's pasture.

TLR

[Don_Ret_USAF]

Things do change mostly for the better but always at a price of big government. Your right family looked out for family. I pray that we will not see the BIRD FLU here in the US. It is a give me that we will. It will be bad. One can only hope that our Medical staffing (both civ/Mil)can see us through the deadly crisis.

[blam]

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

I agree. It definately needs to be discussed and understood before the need arises. Good forward thinking.

Also, how to handle domestic terror attacks, etc where there's major destruction and a large number of people are involved.

[Don_Ret_USAF]

I remember my grandmother talking a little about the crisis of the 1918 flu. She told me that my grandfather drove a wagon and they put the bodies in a pit and set them on fire. She said that so many were dead that it was impossible to give them a proper burial. Some people were buried alive not on purpose but because they were thought to have died. I saw tears in her eyes and pain in her face. Look; I know it will be bad when it hits. An very little can be done. I welcome the military medical staff. I have have many encounters w/them during my service. They are the best and very professional. My beef is using armed military personal, instead of the National Guard. Now if MARSHAL LAW is declared that makes it a different Ball Game. I believe this will happen (MARSHAL LAW Declared). Marshal Law does not change Posse Comitatus. Marshal Law temporary limits the use of the MILITARY FORCE and preempts Posse Comitatus only temporary. What BUSH wants to do is CHANGE Posse Comitatus and allow the military to be used as civilian law enforcement. He would controls the military controls the people. Remember give the GOVERNMENT an inch and they will take two miles and make you think you approved it.
Will take up your suggestion on google 1918 Flu. I pray that this BIRD FLU will not hit the USA. I do believe it will be bad and effect many persons. And we will need the best from all nations to combat it. Thanks for the insight.