Friday, October 3, 2014
From: Gary L. Bauer
Ebola In America: Day 3
There are disturbing reports today out of Dallas, once again demonstrating how easily our “emergency protocols” can breakdown.
News reports are using the word “chaos” to describe the situation at the apartment complex where Thomas Duncan’s relatives are staying. The family is now under armed guard because they reportedly violated their quarantine orders.
Moreover, Dallas officials are having an extremely difficult time finding a company willing to decontaminate their apartment. Understandably, few companies want to put their employees at risk. Unfortunately, that means those family members are still being exposed to blankets, towels and other items used by Duncan.
Now we have learned that a freelance cameraman with NBC News has become infected. That individual is currently in Liberia with an entire NBC News crew, but they will be flown back to the U.S. in coming days. The crew will be quarantined for 21 days, while the cameraman undergoes treatment.
We’re also learning that in 2010 the Obama Administration gutted quarantine regulations written by the Bush Administration to deal with pandemics.
Five years prior, then-Senator Obama blasted the Bush Administration for not having an emergency plan to deal with the avian flu.
Ebola Tourism?
There is more news today about Thomas Duncan, the Liberian man now insolation at a Dallas hospital with Ebola. Duncan was a former driver for a delivery company that contracted with FedEx in Liberia.
According to his former boss and others who knew him, Duncan had recently received a visa to travel to America to visit relatives.
But after coming into contact with an Ebola victim who later died, Duncan believed that going to America was his best chance of surviving the disease. He reportedly quit his job, leading former co-workers to suspect he had no intention of returning to Liberia.
Make no mistake about that, my friends: Duncan knew he had been exposed to Ebola and he lied on an airport questionnaire about his exposure. As result, Liberia plans to prosecute him — if he survives.
Some people are now suggesting that Mr. Duncan may be the first of a wave of “Ebola tourism,” thousands of people fleeing their homelands to take advantage of the U.S. healthcare system. That would absolutely overwhelm us.
Calls are increasing for the Obama Administration to halt flights between affected countries and the U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Governor Bobby Jindal have issued public statements insisting on those halts. But the administration is so far refusing to impose travel restrictions that would prevent individuals in nations with Ebola outbreaks from entering the country.
Meanwhile, it is making all kinds of excuses for granting refugee status to the tens of thousands of recent illegal immigrants from Central America. Using the left’s flawed logic, why not add poor healthcare to the list and just throw the doors wide open to all the problems that afflict the Third World?
For all the emphasis on “compassion” in debates over immigration reform and border security, this is just another reminder of how easily a country unwilling to control its borders could be swamped by the rest of the world that is desperate to avoid its own problems.
Panetta Pans Obama
Leon Panetta, Obama’s former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA, Bill Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff and seven-term Democrat member of the House of Representatives, has written his memoir. As you might expect with a resume like that, Panetta has some interesting revelations about his time in Washington, D.C.
Time has released excerpts of Panetta’s book recounting the negotiations with Iraq on a status of forces agreement that would have permitted U.S. troops to remain in Iraq. You may recall that the negotiations failed, and now ISIS controls large swaths of the country.
Who was to blame for that failure: Obama or the Iraqis? To this day, Mr. Obama insists the Iraqi leadership was at fault. But in his book, Panetta pans Obama’s foreign policy. Consider these excerpts on the status of forces agreement:
“I privately and publicly advocated for a residual force that could provide training and security for Iraq’s military. Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy did her best to press that position, which reflected not just my views but also those of the military commanders in the region and the Joint Chiefs.
“But the President’s team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated. . . . those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests. . . .
“To my frustration, the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them. . . . The deal never materialized. To this day, I believe that a small U.S. troop presence in Iraq could have effectively advised the Iraqi military on how to deal with al-Qaeda’s resurgence and the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country.”
When former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates released his memoir, it too had some heavy criticism of Obama’s leadership on matters of national security. Referring to the war in Afghanistan, Gates wrote that Obama didn’t “believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”
Many pundits dismissed Gates’ criticism because he was a “Bush holdover.” That cannot be said of Leon Panetta.
Day Of Atonement
Jews throughout the world today are observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is known as the Day of Atonement because it marks God’s forgiveness of his chosen people for the sin of the golden calf. For that reason it also a time of joy.
On this solemn day, please join Carol and me in praying for the peace of Jerusalem and for a peaceful Yom Kippur.
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