If somebody does contract ebola and becomes symptomatic, they will be handled in just like youve seen on the recent ones who came back on an aircraft that was specially designed to bring them back. Theyll go back to one of the centers that is specially designed to handle the ebola. Heres how one of the 4,000 u. S. Troops being sent there describes the mission. Setting up warehouses to make sure that all the stuff that the doctors need gets in country, to build some facilities they need to treat patients and help americans feel a little safer. Were going over there to help the people of liberia deal with this deadly virus so they wont come back over to the states. Now, the pentagon has been very adamant that no u. S. Troops will have direct contact with ebola patients. They will build the facilities that nonmilitary Health Care Workers will staff. But a few dozen military techs will be testing specimen samples from suspected ebola victims. Zoo t the numbers in the lab, between a three and fourperson team. We have three labs deployed right now. Well probably deploy several others. Again, those people are trained to the very highest level of operating a nuclear, biological, chemical arena and theyre tested continually. Those are the ones testing all the people. The House Arms Services committee has passed an additional 700 million for this mission. Thats on top of 50 million approved last month. But still shy of the 1 billion president obama requested. In other ebola news Homeland Security committee is hosting a rare field hearing in dallas. We now have video of a wednesday morning flight from philly that ended with hazmat teams on board. A passenger sneezed, then joked he had ebola and, quote, are you all screwed. That man later told hazmat crews he was kidding. You can guess nothing about it is being treated as a joke. Here to help us understand the u. S. Militarys role, gordon. This is not a traditional military deployment. What is the reaction of troops being sent over . Is there any precedent for military to conduct a medical mission of this scale . Right. It is a little nontraditional but also a bit traditional. Weve been surrounded by war for all these years and in the last several months weve been hearing about what the military is doing in places like iraq and now syria. So, this is what the military tends to be doing when its not busy fighting wars. But this is different because typically when the military deploys for a large humanitarian mission, such as the one in haiti after the earthquake some years ago, it was to kind of bring security and stability and potentially then address the humanitarian issues. This one is more this is a logistical deployment for now. To build these medical centers and to address the kind of logistical concerns and really the command and control, what the military would say, is very good at doing to help bring some form to this Overall International effort. And, gordon, in addition to the logistical concerns you talked about, there are going to be several dozen members of the u. S. Military who are really dealing with ebola samples in these mobile testing labs. Now, as the pentagon said, these are very specialized troops, highly trained in dealing with biohazards and other dangerous materials. But can you give us a sense of the training these men and women do go through and what theyre going to be facing there on the ground . Right. This is a special brand of military unit from the Naval Medical center, who as you say, are specifically trained in this. This is not just kind of your average rifleman whos going over to do some of that work, which is very, obviously, technical. The pentagon at first had commander had said made the mistake, General Rodriguez said they were going to be in direct contact and they did later amend those those words. You know, much of the military will be building these units and then this other specialized unit, right, with specialized training, just looking at the specimens, will be doing that indirectly. The thing is, unlike other operations like, say, whats happening in iraq where theyve kind of announced deployments piecemeal about the number of people they might deploy there, in liberia theyve said as many as 3,900 military personnel could be deployed. I think just as the footprint expands, the danger for some exposure, you know, increases as well. But one thing the military is very good at is forced protection. And i think theyre trained to make sure that they dont get, obviously, inadvertently exposed. Gordon, there have been concerns this death toll sfiment were seeing from the World Health Organization of just over 4,000 deaths is an underestimate. Theres a lot of chaos, obviously, in liberia. Were not getting a reliable string of depth certificates. Is one thing the military will be doing oe the ground there is figuring out what the exact scope of this outbreak is . Could that, therefore, mean more deployments as they figure out there might be more needs for these sorts of operations than we realize now from afar . Right. I think what were seeing is the initial kind of deployment of this. I think so as your setup piece mentioned, theres like 450 military personnel there on the ground, and they say up to 3900, 4,000 over the next several months. They already budgeted a sixmonth window for this. General rodriguez at the pentagon the other day did hint it could expand beyond that. But just they just dont know. Certainly, theyre doing some kind of recon, as it were, to establish better what the problem is, but as we know from groups like Doctors Without Borders simph the cdc that the math is very difficult to reconcile. The problem is very large. And even what the military is the u. S. Military is doing there. And in aspect to the international community, its going to take a long time. So, i think they are trying to assess the problem as much as they can. But the u. S. Militarys focus is to build these units, these mobile training units and do some training and also establish security and transportation capabilities there. I mean, thats a really important mission, but of course with any mission, you have the possibility, the fear of mission creep. Theres no real end game for this. Looks like ebola may become endemic in western africa . When would these folks leave . But ebola fears have led to a breakdown in a lot of ways that they interact socially . Theres fear of association with others. Theres disruption of transportation. And a lot of times theres outright panic. Yesterday Liberian Police used batons and whips on 100 protesters. If Something Like that is happening nearby and causing unrest and chaos, obviously the u. S. Military would want to get involved and be a peacekeeping force. But thats not what we really want them to do over there. How do we keep them from becoming a local police force . Sure. So, theres a lot there. I mean, there was a great piece the other day about people arent hugging each other in a country thats very used to hugging and personal affection. Its obviously a very poor country and this is a chaotic environment. I think the way this white house has directed its military is to have fairly specific missions. We know they can change and expand. But i dont think that i think president obama got some criticism for deploying the military for a medical crisis and not a war. I think, on the other hand, people could criticize that this is American Leadership and sending the deployment of military to help in this crisis is a symbol of that kind of leadership. I think president obama very careful to limit his options, we know that from iraq, and i think in this case, that would be a big jump to move from where they are now to policing the streets. It could happen. I think, again, General Rodriguez at the pentagon the other day left the door a little open for a possible expansion of this mission because it really as you say, we dont know the extent of the problem. We just know its really, really big. Yeah, absolutely. And tomorrow they start the screenings at the airport, medically trained coast guards will help out there. Give us a sense of what their role will be. Well, i think this is going to be a new thing for first Kennedy Airport and then, i think, four major other airports following the next several days. And the coast guard personnel, which are trained in this area, will kind of take the first the first shift, as it were, and then it will expand as you pointed out to the Personnel Department for Homeland Security. I think its a very minimal thing. This is where they are taking the temperature with noncontact thermometers that look like guns. I think this will be disruptive in that sense. But over time, i mean, its the death of mr. Duncan, i think, certainly was kind of a wakeup call this could come. Absolutely. It is for the best. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Still ahead, the part of this conversation about ebola that toure finds most troubling. A wild week for the markets. Had where will they land . Ripped from the headlines. The gops november strategy. No, really, it was the headline in the times today. The cycle rolls on for friday, october 10th. There are two reasons why i need to keep an eye on my health. Ugh we won thats why i take metabiotic, a daily probiotic. 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Its important for the United States to step back and remember our strategic objective. So, kobani seems to fall between a town to the greatest threat weve ever seen and a slow drip from the kitchen sink. You can add jon stewart to the critic of president obamas fight on isis. Leon panetta who this week blasted president obamas Foreign Policy on his book tour. A number of Democratic Candidates are running as fast as they can away from the president. Allison lunder gren grimes wouldnt answer this week if she voted for obama when asked by a local newspapers Editorial Board. Did you vote for president obama . In 2008 . 2012 . This election isnt about the president. Its about making sure we put kentuckians back to work. Did you vote for him . I was on the way to a delegate for hillary clinton. I respect the sanctity of the ballot box. I know the members of this Editorial Board do, too. Youre not going to answer . Again, i dont think the president is on the ballot as much as Mitch Mcconnell might want him to be, its my name. Perhaps not the most eloquent response but the sentiment is there. Democrats hoping to win in november arent hoping to do so by running next to barack obama. And the gop knows it, thats why theyre trying to do everything talking about whats wrong with this country, ebola, isis, secret service, you name, it theyre tying it all back to the president. In turn, to democrats. Fair or not, the question s will it work . For more on these politics, less than a month out from the midterm elections were joined by Washington Post political comments from the Washington Post, pardon me, dana, dana milbank, friend of the show. Dana, were thrilled to have you here. Thanks for joining us. Glad to see you. Were getting as lot as jon stewart aptly showed at the top of this clip here, were getting a lot of mixed messages from the president. Isis is jv, now a real threat but yet were doing nothing in kobani. Is this a policy failure or just a Communications Failure . Well, its a Communications Failure, to be sure. If it becomes it depends on what happens on the ground there for it to be a policy failure. But it is a huge political liability. Thats why democrats across the country have forgotten who barack obama is and the republicans are trying fervently to remind everybody. The president has not helped by saying, my policies, my economic policies are going to be on the agenda. Certainly, leon panetta has not helped. He has every right to come out and make these criticisms. Probably if he did not want to deliver the senate to republicans, he might have waited to release the book until midnovember. Im sure he knew what he was doing there. Dana, i want to go back to the New York Times article in reference that talks about how the gop is running on fear and loathing. Of course, fear is the easiest thing to run on. It makes some people say, i must go out and vote. It makes other people say, why bother, it doesnt matter . It helps the press turn out, which is good for the gop and contributes to this midterm, as pew is calling it. Ultimately, it reveals and exposes that the gop in general really has nothing but the world is horrible to say to us. Right. Well, you know, fear does work. Had i not agreed in advance to come on the show today, i might still be in bed given all the ebola thats out there in my neighborhood. So, but of course, fear is sort of the last few remember when this election was going to be about obama care . Remember when it was going to be about jobs . Remember when it was going to be about all those scandals in the Obama Administration . They are gone now. As my colleagues karen and robert costa pointed out, there are some surprises popping up that put the very clear republican claims on the senate in jeopardy now in south dakota, in kentucky, which we were just talking about, in georgia, in some other places. So, i think what you do, when all else fails is, you frighten people. Thats pretty easy to do right now because most people in america think the countrys on the wrong track. And theyre worried. And so what do do you when people are worried . You tell them to start screaming. Right. And republicans are jumping on that band wagon. Lets pull up these most recent pew numbers that show majority believe we are at risk of another terrorist attack. Theres little confidence in the government that the government, rather, can prevent a major Ebola Outbreak in the u. S. To your point, theres this crisis of confidence and the Republican Party sees where majority of americans are at. The New York Times wrote about this saying, look, the gop really has a simple job. The message is simple. You basically scare americans by saying, quote, the Democratic Party runs a government that is so fundamentally broken, it cannot offer its people the most basic protection from harm. Da dana, to your point of, it may not be about policy, about some of the things i wish republicans were running on, but this could be very, very effective. Sure. I mean, and theyre even making a Campaign Issue of the secret service saying, things are so bad that even the president of the United States, the president of the United States we would like to remove from office, by the way s not being adequately protected by the secret service. Look, i mean, you know, we we can some of us can remember back to, you know, max cleland in 2002, the morphing democrats into osama bin laden. Scare really works. The problem works in the short term if you have nothing in your own quiver to say, heres my alternative. Also, maybe it will get the republicans across the finish line. Then what do they do in 20167 . What should this campaign be about . Toure describes if as lizard braden campaign. Congress doesnt have too much control about who gets ebola. Leaving it to the president so they can blame him. We could talk about a minimum wage increase that will never be law. No serious domestic policy legislation that will get through the next congress, no matter who controls it. Are we doomed to a stupid campaign . Anything we can talk about that isnt stupid . You know, its almost become a campaign about everything and, therefore, about nothing. The entire kitchen sink has been thrown in. Each week we think its going to be something different. Oh, now its really going to be about Foreign Policy and isis. Just as we were sure it was going to be obama care. We were sure it was going to be this skajtcandal. Basically, it comes down to the classic, traditional thing. That is, Voters Register disapproval with a party thats in power, the president s party. The only reason theyre not registered disapproval in larger number is because theyre disgusted with the whole thing. And the republican fear message helps to make them disgusted with the whole thing. Absolutely. The campaign about everything but nothing. You make it sound like a seinfeld campaign. Dana milbank, thanks for joining us. Why we found msnbcs own Thomas Roberts on the baseball field at yankee stadium. If i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing ive learned is my philosophy is real simple American Express open forum is an online community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make Smart Business decisions. If you mess up, fess up. Be your partners best partner. We built it for our members, but its