These photos (from the Mail Online) of sufferers from ebola lying dead on the roads in Liberia give a true picture of Africa. See how poor it is – despite decades of First World aid being poured into it.

Why the pervasive and persistent poverty with its concomitant filth and ignorance? Could the aid have something to do with it? It wrecked the local economies and filled the Swiss bank accounts of the dictators rather than built a house, paved a street, or founded a school or hospital.

Millions of Africans have died of malnutrition, malaria, and Aids. And now thousands are dying of ebola.

But out of the West comes more aid. The outbreak and rapid spread of this most terrible disease allows Obama to continue his campaign of turning the US military into a ministry of social workers.

American soldiers will now have to face something far more lethal than IS/ISIS/ISIL. Something they did not sign up for. (Will there be no protest from the ranks?)

And what are the odds against their bringing ebola back home with them?

This is from the Wall Street Journal. (Google the title Obama Plans Major Ebola Offensive to get round the paywall. )

President Barack Obama plans to dramatically boost the U.S. effort to mitigate the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including greater involvement of the U.S. military …

Mr. Obama is expected to detail the plan during a visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] in Atlanta …  Among the possible moves: sending additional portable hospitals, doctors and health-care experts, providing medical supplies and conducting training for health workers in Liberia and other countries.

Mr. Obama also is expected to urge Congress to approve the request he made last week for an additional $88 million to fund his proposal.

“There’s a lot that we’ve been putting toward this, but it is not sufficient,” Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said in an interview Sunday. “So the president has directed a more scaled-up response and that’s what you’re going to hear more about on Tuesday.”

The strategy has four components: control the outbreak at its source in West Africa; build competence in the region’s public-health system, particularly in Liberia; bolster the capacity of local officials through enhanced training for health-care providers; and increase support from international organizations …

The Ebola outbreak has infected at least 4,784 people as of Sept. 12, with 2,400 of them dying—a jump from 3,707 cases and 1,848 deaths as of Aug. 31. The true toll probably is much higher, the World Health Organization says. …

Mr. Obama ordered a bolder U.S. effort about two weeks ago after CDC Director Tom Frieden briefed the White House on his findings from a trip to West Africa … Dr. Frieden said publicly on Sept. 2 that he saw dozens of patients lying on the ground in an Ebola treatment center because there weren’t enough beds. “I could not possibly overstate the need for an urgent response,” he said.

Mr. Obama’s plan is a reaction to concern that the epidemic could significantly grow in West Africa, particularly in urban areas. …

One rising concern among officials is the possibility that the virus could mutate in a way that would make it more dangerous.

It could become air-borne.

The more the virus spreads from one human to another, the more opportunities it has to mutate, virologists say. While not all scientists agree that significant mutations that would change the way the virus is transmitted are likely, one recent study of virus samples over three weeks in Sierra Leone found many mutations.

The fourteenth century was cursed with the Papal Inquisition and bubonic plague. The twenty-first century is cursed with Islam and ebola.

The only sensible place to look for real help is the laboratory.

Western hard-headed science will do what Western soft-hearted charity can not.