So President Obama is willing to put boots on the ground overseas after all. Except that instead of dispatching them to fight the Islamic State troops controlling large parts of Iraq an🍒d Syria, they may be ♓going to West Africa to combat Ebola.
The president hasn’t given any n🐎umbers. But on Thursday he issued an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to call up military reservists and National Guard so they can be sent overseas to help contain the deadly virus. They would join other American troops he sent earlier.
Maybe military forc☂es for a non-military crisis will help. But it seemᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs part of a distressing pattern: i.e., refusing to use a powerful US institution for its main purpose while quickly deploying it for side missions.
Start with the Centers for Disease Control. Not least of the reasons the CDC has been failing on Ebola is that it has strayed far from its core mission into areas rangin𒀰g from obesity to motorcyle helmets.
That’s no surprise to Post readers who will remember our criticism of CDC Director Thomas Frieden back when he was Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s health commissioner. In that role, Frieden effectively served as chief nanny, expanding the Health Dep🎀artment even as it failed at key responsibilities — witness the great rat infestation of 2007.
Now Frieden heads a CDC that can’t eve𓄧n follow its own protocols and issues one confusing “clarification” after another.
Maybe the president is serious about his new war on Ebola. But before he sends more troops to Africa, he ought to replace his flailing top general in Atla♐nta — CDC Director Frieden — with someone who can carry out the mission.