President Obama is ordering 3,000 U.S. “boots on the ground” in West Africa to fight Ebola, while continuing to pledge zero on the ground to fight ISIS in Iraq.
According to AFP, Obama will announce the deployment of 3,000 troops to West Africa on September 16.
The deployment will center on Liberia, where US “military medical corps… [will] build 17 Ebola treatment centers with 100 beds each.” US Africa Command (AFRICOM) “will set up a headquarters in the Liberian capitol Monrovia to act as a command and control center for US military and international relief programs.”
Obama believes the troop deployment–together with the presence of international teams from China and elsewhere–can “turn the tide” in the Ebola outbreak. He continues to stress that Ebola poses “no realistic threat to the United States.”
In Iraq and Syria, where ISIS has beheaded two American journalists–James Foley and Steven Sotloff–and released a video promising to drown “all” Americans in their own blood, Obama is sticking to his pledge of “no boots on the ground.”
In the lead up to his September 10 speech on the US strategy against ISIS, Obama had already made clear American combat troops would not be deployed against the terror group. He then used his strategy speech to reiterate that he will not allow our efforts against ISIS to resemble the Iraq War. Rather, we will fight them from a distance, via airstrikes and tactical support as in Yemen and Somalia.
On August 22, Breitbart News reported on a tweet that hinted at an ISIS threat against Chicago. The tweet contained a photo of the Old Republic Building in Chicago and a piece of paper on which was written: “Soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will pass from here soon.” The tweet also contained the following text: “We are in your state, We are in your cities, We are in your streets.”
The Obama administration continues to maintain that ISIS does not pose a direct threat to the U.S. homeland.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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