Wounded soldiers in Afghanistan in 2007. The defense secretary has directed the military to send more helicopters there. Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesFrom The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — In Iraq, wounded American troops are treated at a well-equipped field hospital within one hour, regardless of where they were fighting or how bad the battle.
In Afghanistan, with its rugged terrain, their comrades are not so fortunate. Some wounded troops there do not receive advanced trauma care for almost two hours, greatly lessening the chances of survival and rapid recovery.
Now, Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary, is trying to address the imbalance, directing the military to send more helicopters to Afghanistan and to set up a fourth field hospital there to guarantee that wounded Americans are treated within what the military calls “the golden hour.”
The order is Mr. Gates’s latest foray into a Pentagon bureaucracy that he has complained is sometimes too slow to respond to the needs of the troops. It comes as the Obama administration is preparing to double American forces in Afghanistan as part of a plan to battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban more effectively.
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My Comment: There are tens of thousands of coalition and NATO troops in the country. Will this standard also be applied to them?
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