Is Putin Key to Obama #39;s War on ISIL?
As tensions mount in the Middle East, while simultaneously Russia #39;s relationship with Western nations also declines, News2share contributor and political commentator Jon-Christopher Bua asks...
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Is Putin Key to Obama's War on ISIL? - Video
Washington The Obama administration is ramping up its response to West Africa's Ebola crisis, preparing to assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and to boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.
President Barack Obama planned to announce the stepped-up effort Tuesday during a visit to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta amid concern that the outbreak could spread.
The new U.S. effort comes after appeals from the region and from aid organizations for a heightened U.S. role in combatting the outbreak blamed for more than 2,200 deaths.
Administration officials said Monday that the new initiatives aim to:
Train as many as 500 health care workers a week.
Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region of 100 beds each.
Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts.
Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.
Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama's announcement, said the cost of the effort would come from $500 million in overseas contingency operations, such as the war in Afghanistan, that the Pentagon already has asked Congress to redirect to carry out humanitarian efforts in Iraq and in West Africa.
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Obama to send 3,000 US military personnel to fight Ebola
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama embarks on a two-day U.S. road trip Tuesday to assess and amplify his government's response to two unconnected overseas emergencies -- the Ebola outbreak in Africa and Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
On Tuesday Obama will announce significant new U.S. efforts to combat the Ebola epidemic, which has moved quickly across the western part of Africa and sent governments there scrambling to respond. The plan, which he'll announce at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, includes new military assistance to the region and an increase in trained medical professionals sent to help.
On Wednesday, Obama heads further south to assess his mission against ISIS at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida.
Ebola's spread is unrelated to the U.S. mission to degrade ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria. But both have prompted worry among Americans about their personal safety and led to charges the White House isn't doing enough to combat the hazards.
The dual foreign plagues have yet to pose an immediate threat to the United States homeland, the White House says, though each has claimed the lives of Americans abroad. And officials say both Ebola and ISIS could grow to become unmanageable problems if action isn't taken now to stamp them out.
The President's stop Tuesday at the CDC comes amid escalating criticism from health experts on the global response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where almost 2,500 people have died.
At the U.S. public health agency Obama will be briefed on the outbreak and speak to officials there about how the U.S. is responding. Afterwards he'll announce new U.S. commitments in combating the virus' spread.
Working through the Defense Department, the U.S. will plan and construct treatment centers that could house up to 1,700 beds, administration officials said. With a U.S. general leading the effort from Liberia's capital of Monrovia, American military personnel in the region could increase by 3,000.
Medics and other uniformed professionals will work to train up to 500 health care workers per week in identifying and caring for people with Ebola.
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Obama ramps up Ebola virus effort
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The Obama administration has threatened to destroy the Syrian government's air defenses if US warplanes flying missions to attack militants in Syria are targeted over the country's air space.
The public threat is an example of the difficult waters Mr. Obama is wading into with his plan to "destroy" the self-styled Islamic State, which is fighting to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The White House insists that its effort will neither help Mr. Assad nor involve his cooperation, more than three years into Syria's civil war.
Syrian war-planes and helicopters are already flying missions against IS and other rebel groups, and without coordination between Syrian and US forces, the risk of accidental engagements is high.
The Associated Press reports:
Officials said the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the administration's thinking on thematter.
... U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Assad and insist that a campaign against the Islamic State will not strengthen the Syrian dictator's hold on power.
The New York Times reports that House Republicans are planning to use a vote on authorizing training for Syrian rebels to push Obama for more clarity on his strategy for confronting IS. Some lawmakers are uneasy at the prospect that US-trained rebels may defect with their weapons to IS.
House leaders want to leave an imprint on the ISIS bill. The amendment, as redrafted by the House Armed Services Committee, will require the Obama administration, 15 days before the program begins, to report to Congress how the training and equipping of Syrian rebels fits with a broader strategy to defeat ISIS, how the military plans to vet participants and how officers plan to stop the kinds of attacks by pupils on U.S. forces that have plagued training efforts in Afghanistan.
The bill also mandates that every 90 days, the administration will update Congress on the programs performance, how many trainees might have gone over to ISIS and how trainees are using U.S. military equipment.
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Obama vows to strike Syrian regime if US jets attacking IS are targeted
President Obama and his advisors appear to have convinced Americans that the Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria are a threat to the U.S. This week he'll try to prove he's capable of taking them on.
In laying out a plan to use U.S. air power, multinational partners and proxy fighters to "ultimately destroy" the Al Qaeda offshoot, Obama appears to have landed in a rare moment of bipartisan backing. Polls released over the weekend show that sizable majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support Obama's tactics.
But the support hasn't immediately translated into a clear political boost for the president or a surge of congressional support for him. In one survey, most Americans said they have little confidence that the plan will succeed and added that his remarks didn't change their opinion of Obama.
The skepticism reflects the months of sagging public confidence in the president, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs. A summer of crises in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Iraq and Syria has sunk Obama's approval rating to near lows in some polls. Both friend and foe have criticized the president for his seeming indecisiveness or tentative reaction to global trouble. Democrats running in tight races have kept a safe distance.
The doubts have been clear in Congress, where GOP lawmakers grappled Monday with how to support a strategy from a president they say they do not trust. Meanwhile, administration officials tried to persuade foreign leaders to go all in.
At a conference in Paris on Monday, key players Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates agreed to support the Iraqi government in its fight against Islamic State "by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance." But the statement made no reference to taking the fight to Syria, the extremist group's stronghold.
Pentagon officials announced Monday that the U.S. had expanded the fight on its own, with airstrikes launched southwest of Baghdad that destroyed an Islamic State fighting position firing on Iraqi government forces. The attack was the first to be conducted as part of the expanded mission announced by Obama last week to help Iraqi troops mount a vigorous new offense against the militant group.
On the diplomatic front, the White House has scheduled a week of events that could burnish the president's image as commander in chief and demonstrate his willingness to use military might.
Obama is slated Wednesday to visit U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., to huddle with advisors planning newly expanded military operations in Iraq and Syria. The visit will focus in part on how to manage the emerging coalition of allies, senior administration officials said Monday. The president is also expected to address troops at the base.
The visit will follow a similar briefing Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he'll outline a new effort to use U.S. military resources to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
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Obama has bipartisan support against Islamic State, still faces doubts