Bush to use troops for Avian Bird Flu Outbreak?

[welsh]

This sounds like a movie. Plague hits the streets, military is mobilized, quarantine--- then come the surgical nuclear strikes to limit contagion.

From Reuters-

Bush wants right to use military if bird flu hits
By Charles Aldinger | October 4, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic.

He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection.

As if the military wasn't doing enough already.

Or we could do a better job of vaccines?

"If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference.

"It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?" Bush added.

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

Yes, men in camo and gasmasks, fresh from roadblock duty in Iraq.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

Experts fear that the H5N1 bird flu virus, which appears to be highly fatal when it infects people, will develop the ability to pass easily from person to person and would cause a pandemic that would kill millions.

"And I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," Bush said.

Indeed. Emergency conditions require that the government impose martial law, suspend constitutional civil liberities, fast track legislation around debate in Congress by removing congress if necessary. Replacing the judiciary with military courts as needed in time of law. And then be elected grand pubbah of the republic?

What I love about Bush is how he manages to use every crappy situation to come out ahead.

He noted that some governors may object to the federal government commandeering the National Guard, which is under state command in most circumstances.

POLICE DUTIES BANNED

"But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak," Bush said.

Yes, because debate is bad! Bad!

(don't people realize that for the Greeks, democracy meant mob rule!)

The active duty military is currently forbidden from undertaking law enforcement duties by the federal Posse Comitatus Act.

That law, passed in 1878 after the U.S. Civil War, does not prohibit National Guard troops under state control from doing police work. But, unless the law is changed, it would keep them from doing so if they were activated by Washington under federal control.

While the law allows the president to order the military to take control and do police work in an extreme emergency, the White House has been traditionally reluctant to usurp state powers.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters he was not aware of any current planning by the military to help respond to a flu pandemic.

But he noted that after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf region, Bush had asked Congress to consider giving the military control over initial response in dealing with major natural or other domestic disasters.

"Obviously the (Defense) Department has a tremendous amount of capability in a lot of areas. And we are a large force," Whitman said, noting also that the military had deployed field hospitals to Louisiana after the hurricanes.

Health experts are working to develop vaccines that would protect against the H5N1 strain of flu, because current influenza vaccines will not.

And countries are also developing stockpiles of drugs that can reduce the risk of serious disease or even sometimes prevent infection -- but supplies and manufacturing capacity are both limited.

Bush said he was involved in planning for an influenza pandemic, which experts say will definitely come, although they cannot predict when, or whether it will be H5N1 or some other virus.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox)

A little catastrophe and a little fear is all a few strongmen need.

 

[4too]

Fighting The Last War

Fighting The Last War





A ''9-11'', and , or a Sadamm's WMD - the ''Rogue State'' solution to this possible flu pandemic might be a proactive assault and containment of the present know nations harboring this dangerous virus.

Quarantine the planet in yet another war of ""Liberation"".




Post Katrina, the 'lesson'' appears to be a massive military response. The civil and state resources are as shallow as the politicians that have perpetuated the illusion of fiscal expediency with one hand while doling out the pork with the other.

Quarantine a state, a regional lock down to slow the spread of the virus. Perhaps the limited medical resources can be concentrated and the RATIONED vaccine given time to boost the immunization of the military, politicians, lobbyists, TV preachers, Rush Limbaugh, and all those health insurance and hospital administrators.

If this crony capitalist medical monopoly repeats it's last year flu vaccine performance, then a select minority of Americans will be vaccinated. America at it's Third World cynical best, The soldiers sent to issue the last of the vaccine, and contain any panic will be vaccinated, maybe even the local ""first responders"'.

You, me, and the rest , maybe two thirds of the nation, well, we'll be in God's hands.

W's God, W's mythology, we'll be on our own.

For those who haven't had the flu when you are over 40, it's as bad , and worse then those fevers you had as a kid, Hope you all got ""sick time"" saved. But that's a RATIONED commodity too.

W's mythology. Maybe I am projecting the worst of a conservative coalition straw man. Still this possible pandemic will be a fascinating study in Social Darwinism, and Intelligent Design.




4too