[kabar]

What American assets are they protecting?

[BuckeyeTexan]

They will be protecting CDC, DoD, etc. personnel who are currently there (with more on the way) transporting equipment and supplies, and building field hospitals. A significant number of our troops will be stationed at and supporting an intermediate staging base.

Without some number of armed U.S. forces to protect our personnel and guard equipment/supplies during transport and configuration, the equipment/supplies would likely be stolen/abused.

I'm not happy about sending our boys, but our other personnel need them. It's kind of like the Haiti earthquake response ... but with Ebola. 😕