Posted on 06/15/2007 1:35:18 PM PDT by devane617
The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort will be sailing off Florida waters on Sunday en route to Latin America and the Caribbean -- and The Miami Herald will be on board for a first report on the mission.
President Bush has ordered the ship, with a mixed 500-plus military and civilian crew and staff, to spend three months on a 12-nation tour as a goodwill gesture.
The Baltimore-based ship left port in Norfolk, Va., on Friday morning in what the Pentagon's U.S. Southern Command is calling ``its first-ever, large-scale humanitarian assistance deployment to Central America, South America and the Caribbean.''
Southcom estimates that during the tour, which coincides with the Atlantic hurricane season, medical and dental teams on board the ship will collaborate with foreign medical staff to ``provide medical care to an estimated 85,000 patients from communities with limited healthcare access.''
Comfort is a former tanker as lengthy as three football fields, equipped with a helicopter landing pad and the ability to take on patients from the sea as well. On this mission, it is equipped with two operating rooms, a 50-bed hospital ward and a host of scanning, laboratory and analysis equipment.
Stops will include Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname.
A Miami Herald team anticipates posting a news update and web-video at www.miamiherald.com Sunday evening -- following up with a full news report in Monday morning's newspaper.
Meantime, to read more about Comfort, see http://www.comfort.navy.mil
My bigger problem is with people (again, not you necessarily) who object to the principle that the U.S. should not actively promote its interests in the region. To me, "let's leave the playing field to our rivals" is not a successful long-term strategy.
My biggest problem is with people (not you) who can no longer discuss the benefits and costs of such a program without raising the subject of another, and almost completely (I'm being generous), unrelated issue. Or compare this mission to another, and almost completely, unrelated historical event.
I have no problem to your objection to our government spending money. I merely wish to see a discussion of befnefit versus cost, and I'm seeing little of it here.
You need to finish your thought: if we no longer have the balls to deploy a hospital ship on a goodwill visit to Trinidad & Tobago, then whatever war we are fighting (if you see things that way) is already lost.
Exactly
Exactly. That was my first thought. Really, I wondered why we are needed since I’ve heard that Cuba has doctors all over the world doing humanitarian missions. Of course we won’t get any positive feedback about our humanitarian efforts. I am trying to buy health care coverage but half of property taxes are soon due here in Indiana. That $1,500 will have to be paid before I can think of myself. (forgive the whine)
This is part of SOUTHCOM’s theater security cooperation plan.
And it is in fact a way to counteract, Chavez, China, Castro, and Morales.
Also, for some of those on this site who are whining about the “gubmint” spending this money - consider this:
If these folks don’t get these services in their native country, what’s the liklihood of them heading up to the good ‘ole US of A, and becoming long-term illegals - exponentially increasing the long term cost to same US of A.
SO:
1) we prop up the friendly governments by providing needed medical services to the folks most likely to head this way if they can’t get said services there.
2) We conter the Chavista elements of influence in said region.
Questions? Feel free to ask as I happen to work at SOUTHCOM.
In case you haven’t heard, there is a WAR on, and we have thousands of casualties waiting for treatment and therapy.
We simply don’t have 300 military doctors and nurses sitting around with nothing to do.
Not while blast and amputation casualties wait for treatment.
He also ought to try reading something by French author Jean Raspail entitled "The Camp Of The Saints"....
- John
“I strongly recommend you pick up the book “Imperial Grunts” by Robert Kaplan.”
I’ll take up your suggestion and look for the book, I just read the reviews for it at Amazon and will try to find a copy locally before springing for it.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
I am all for this.
Hugo is constantly shipping these countries Cuban doctors and there’s no question the locals will compare and contrast American medical care with the castrocare variety and will be favorably impressed. That’s what this whole thing is about. It’s good for us.
What's the difference if we spend money (mine) on them there, or money on them here (plus, it can't be peanuts to send a ship rolling around). We wouldn't have to spend any on them if we enforced existing laws and close the border.
Well said. Not only did the Colombians fight side by side with us in Korea, they ARE fighting with us side by side in Iraq and Afghanistan, through their doper-crushing specialists and soldiers. El Salvador too, and El Salvador has lost men to Islamofascist terrorists. We owe it to both to be their friends because they were with us when we needed them.
No they don’t. You’re mixing them up with Arabs.
Some Mexicans are antiamerican, but they aren’t pro-hugo, so big deal if they are. Notice that they aren’t on the boat tour. Only the real friends of the US are, people who will be so kind to you if you visit their countries and whose poll numbers (check out Panama and Colombia in particular) show flamingly high pro-American sentiment.
They aren’t Arabs.
“I no longer support the president, but I do favor and support this mission.”
Given that we have numerous Americans needing medical aid, why would you support America giving free medical aid to those whose governments are socialistic, anti-American, ad nauseam?
We ain’t doing that.
Colombia is 100% rightwing and locked in a life and death struggle with marxist narcoterrorists who have a 1% approval rating (from the terrorists themselves). Its antidoper specialists are fighting side by side with our men in Afghanistan and Iraq and they fear nothing. They sent swamp and jungle extrication specialists to New Orleans during Katrina to rescue people.
Panama is 100% proAmerican and its population recently voted to expand the Canal, going into debt to do it, a move that will bring lower walmart prices to us as the cost of transport gets cut. They cut our prices, which is a lot more than the Democrats, who want to raise taxes, can say. They put money in our pockets and they are big fans of America.
El Salvador has troops dying alongside ours in Iraq and its president is considered the Rush Limbaugh of Latin America. He regularly denounces even soft socialism because it always takes away people’s freedom. The guy rocks.
I could go on. The ones getting the aid boat are all worthy, though there are a few on the fence of populism because they don’t know anybetter, like Ecuador - those are the ones whose hearts and minds must be won over from communism.
The antiamerican regimes in the hemisphere are: Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Exactly what I was thinking, thank you for your post.
And some here should remember the anti-American propaganda that is spoon fed to the poor in LA countries.
When the COMFORT enters a port-of-call, it blackens the eye of every public figure in the area who couldn’t provide any help to their own people.
Another excellent point.
Well said. You too, Capt. P.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.