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The Army is expert in things like this and always helps with it’s experts and science, but we are already doing that and have done it in every Ebola outbreak going back to the first one in 1976, but that doesn’t mean regular troops, and by the thousands.

We have a civilian organization, the Center for Disease Control, that has both the expertise and experience to control the spread of disease. They would be the ones directing that effort should we have an outbreak here.

CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

No doubt, even with the military involved, it will be CDC in overall charge of the effort.

“DoD personnel bring a level of excellence second to none, working in response to host nations and WHO in the most-affected countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia,” Army Col. James Cummings, a physician and director of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center told AFPS.

This is just more official propaganda to justify sending an unprecedented large military mission to Africa to combat Ebola. Whether it is justified or that it is the best strategy remains to be seen. We are putting US lives at stake in this effort.

You seem to want to pretend that the Army isn’t expert in this field that they specialize in.

You also use that old quote to claim that Army Col. James Cummings, a physician and director of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center was saying it to justify thousands of ground troops being sent to Africa, I don’t think he was doing that back when he was discussing what his unit does.

Between the Army’s specialization in biological warfare and the CDC’s role in what they do, I’m not certain who is better at running large, complex, international operations, and bringing strong leadership, you seem to think the CDC is expert at that rather than the Army.

I made it clear that I am against the madness of sending in line troops to do what Africans themselves can do, but I do think the public should learn more about how specialized in biological agents the Army is, few people realize how diverse the Army’s area of expertise is.