re: "Obama DOD: Order Mercy & Comfort For Gaza Victims"

Gerald at Avuncular American ("An expatriate view of America and the world from Europe by former diplomat Gerald Loftus") has a great idea.

Money quote(s):

"The United States Navy operates two hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort"

"Secretary Gates could issue an order to the Military Sealift Command, in charge of the hospital ships, to bring them out of "reduced operating status (ROS)" at their home port of Baltimore Maryland, which takes a maximum of five days."

&

"Deployment of one of the hospital ships off the coast of Gaza could be one of the very first actions ordered by the new Commander in Chief. Already, the French humanitarian relief organization "Medecins Sans Frontieres" is pressing the French government for similar action. With the close US-Israel ties of which all administrations, Republican and Democratic, are proud, US Navy hospital ships should have a good chance of access to the Gaza coastline. Once hostilities cease.

Israel chased away an Iranian relief ship the other day, accusing it of aiding Hamas. Presumably it would not be as inhospitable to an American hospital ship, but you never know. Israel did sink the USS Liberty during the June 1967 Six Day War."

With Israel announcing a unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza, the timing works pretty well.

I have two concerns.

Firstly, I'm concerned about force protection. While I don't fear a repeat of the Liberty attacks, there are those for whom the great big red crosses of a hospital ship will seem an irresistable lure of a target. Perhaps some smaller, less peaceful ships could accompany our hospital ships as escorts. Unless I'm mistaken, we still have a fleet in the Mediterranean.

Second, I'm concerned about U.S. military personnel providing medical treatment for Hamas fighters, both from the vulnerability standpoint (see my force protection concern immediately above) and from undesirability of becoming the de facto medical support arm of a belligerent, Hamas, whose compliance with the laws of warfare is primarily in the breach. Israel can pretty much be expected to ensure that the prisoners it takes will receive humane medical treatment (not that it will be noticed).