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'War on Ebola' called for by government officials mirrors previous 'wars' on 'poverty,' 'drugs' and 'terror'


War on Ebola

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https://www.naturalnews.com/046967_War_on_Ebola_US_military_civil_liberties.html
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(NaturalNews) The U.S., it seems, is always fighting wars -- wars against drugs, wars against poverty, wars against terror, wars against... fill in the blank. Now, it appears, we have launched a new war, the war against Ebola.

But will this war, like these previous wars, wind up harming civil liberties and freedom more than the actual named target? Time will tell, but already, the "Ebola war" has elements of the other failed "wars," in regard to its impact on privacy, liberty and free will -- especially if the government eventually forces all Americans to subject themselves to an Ebola vaccine.

President Obama launched the war against Ebola in recent days when he labeled the West African outbreak of the deadly disease a great threat to global security. At the same time, the president announced that he would be ordering 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the region to help combat the spread of the virus (thus potentially exposing more Americans to a disease who otherwise were not at risk).

"The reality is that this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better," Obama said during comments at the Atlanta headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"But, right now, the world still has an opportunity to save countless lives. Right now, the world has the responsibility to act, to step up and to do more. The United States of America intends to do more," he added.

New war, new target, same old potential implications of civil rights violations if the virus spreads to North America

As further reported by Reuters:

The U.S. plan, a dramatic expansion of Washington's initial response last week, won praise from the U.N. World Health Organization, aid workers and officials in West Africa. Experts said it was still not enough to contain the epidemic, which is rapidly spreading and has caused already-weak local public health systems to buckle under the strain of fighting it.

Pentagon officials say the primary focus for the military deployment would be Liberia, which is the hardest hit of West African nations.

Under Obama's order, the 3,000 personnel will include engineers and medical personnel. The force will be charged with setting up a regional command and control center, probably under U.S. Africa Command, in Liberia's capital of Monrovia.

The force will be commanded by Army Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, who is already on the ground in Monrovia. Personnel will establish a staging area in neighboring Senegal to help distribute forces and material on the ground.

In addition, the U.S. military force will construct 17 treatment facilities for handling the growing number of Ebola-infected people. The facilities will contain 100 beds each. And the force will place U.S. public health personnel in the new Liberian field hospitals, where thousands of new healthcare workers will also be trained. Finally, Obama's plan calls for the creation of an "air bridge" so that healthcare workers and medical supplies can be delivered more quickly to the affected regions.

Granted, the current outbreak is substantial and spreading; it is the worst since the disease was first identified in 1976. It has already killed around 2,500 people, and there are fears that it will eventually spread throughout the continent (and elsewhere).

'Profound political and economic and security implications'

In announcing his new war, Obama claimed that "the world is looking to us" to head up the fight against Ebola, though he also asked other countries to step up their efforts as well, because the epidemic threatens to spiral "out of control," while "people are literally dying in the streets."

Obama said that U.S. troops would not partake in direct patient care duties, and he said that, while concerns about infections were understandable, the "safety of our personnel will remain a top priority." He added that the "chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low."

Nevertheless, the president warned that, if the outbreak is not stopped, it would likely spread to hundreds of thousands of people, and have "profound political and economic and security implications for all of us."

"This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. It's a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic. That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease," Obama said.

Such major public policy initiatives have tended not to end well for American civil liberties, should Ebola make it to the U.S. Fair warning.

Learn all these details and more at the FREE online Pandemic Preparedness course at www.BioDefense.com

Sources:

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://online.wsj.com

https://za.news.yahoo.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

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