Detainee Health Care: Essential Element of Stability Operations.

摘要

The fundamental requirement for providing medical care to detainees in U.S. custody is that they receive medical care consistent with the standard provided to U.S. military personnel in the same geographic area. Providing U.S. standard of health care to detainees strategically affects stability operations. During the past eight years the U.S. military operations in Iraq, stability operation tasks were conducted in an environment of violent conflict. The efforts to create a safe and secure environment for the civilian populace invariably led to detention of criminals. Medical Stability Operations (MSO) is a core mission of Department of Defense (DoD) Medical Health Systems (MHS) and is a Stability Operation line of effort. In the aftermath of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib a Combat Support Hospital was assigned conducting detainee health care operations as a primary mission. Continuing to meet this standard, DoD must strengthen current MSO doctrine and provide more vigorous training for MSO personnel in the delivery of detainee medical care. United States observance and military personnel strict adherence to education of the Geneva Conventions and the law of armed conflict will ensure incidents like Abu Ghraib do not recur.