DIABETES

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Stefanie Ortiz

Dr. Angela Eward-Mangione

ENC 1101

04 June 2017

What country wields the most power in this world? The United States military is often

called the greatest military power in the world, though modern media has often stereotyped the

military as a culture of violence in which there is no need for in our modern world. Although

some aspects of the military and violence itself cannot be altogether divorced from one another,

our military presence has impacted the world positively with acts of humanitarian assistance,

security, as well as training, not only stateside, but all over the globe.

Humanitarian Assistance is a very specific part of what the U.S. calls “Soft Power,”

which is the use of means outside of firepower and war to show our force, something Franklin D.

Roosevelt believed to be needed after the end of World War II. Our military force uses

humanitarian assistance in almost any major disaster in the world. Haiti was one such show of

soft power, as right after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that demolished their country the U.S.

Marines and U.S. diverted their regular tours to provide food, supplies and medicine to the

country(Sneden). This show of assistance also impacted other friendly nations which ended up

with a culmination of over 11,000 countries providing support to Haiti: "This is truly a joint

effort. We've got the Navy medical staff caring for the patients, Army convoys bringing in

supplies and Marines providing logistical support as well as security" (Sneden), said Major Keith

E. Owens, in which he was referring to the 57,368 meals, 1,365,617 pounds of rice, 30,776

bottles of water, 3,260 pounds of medical supplies, 2,781 hand-crank radios and 79,656 jars of

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baby food that were delivered to the Haitian people in addition to the disaster rebuilding by the

Marines Engineers and Navy’s Combat Engineering Battalion(Sneden). These acts proved the

words of Haitian mayor of Anse-A-Galets to be true: “Right after the earthquake we said, ‘after

God we will wait for the [Americans] to help us.’”(qtd. in Sneden) This showed an unequivocal

faith by a foreign government in our ability to drop everything and help our allied nations. Not

only did this show of graciousness help natives of Haiti but it also brought to rest misconceptions

of Marines thinking they were only seen as guns for hire, or that they would never see the good

they were doing with their operations: "I had no idea I would ever be doing anything like this in

the Marine Corps," is what Lance Corporal Drivenel, a Haitian American Marine, said about

helping his people and his country out (qtd. in Sneden). Due to our military presence, the Haitian

country and its people will recover much faster than if they were not given the help at all.

Even in the Eastern hemisphere, the U.S. will make sure that our powerful military force shows

in many ways. One such way was the medical support rendered to East Timor off the northern

coast of Australia: “Tens of thousands of civilian casualties were incurred, and a large number of

private and public buildings, including health centers, hospitals, and clinics were heavily

damaged or destroyed”(Won et al.) was said in one of the many reports to the U.S. one of

Australia’s main allies, without medicine or medical buildings with sterile environments and

proper ventilation many injured would soon join the deceased list. As such, the U.S. Navy

Marine Corps team sprang into action by sending their Western Pacific Deployment of 2001,

which included 129 highly trained Physicians, Nurses and Hospital Corpsmen, 1,730 other Navy

and Marine Corps personnel for support to the medical patients as well as a Fleet Surgical

Team(FST) which is a ship solely designed for emergency and complicated surgeries that require

immediate hospitalization not found in East Timor(Won et al.). While some marines provided

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security and protection of their medical personnel and patients, the main point of this operation

was treating the civilian casualties in Australia with proper triage, minor procedures and major

operations via Surgical Physicians and Surgical Technician corpsman onboard the FST. Despite

only being in East Timor for three days, the U.S. Pacific team attended to the needs of 1,275

patients with conditions ranging from upper respiratory infections to pneumonia(Won et al.).

While many obstacles arose, such as continuity of care, many of the East Timor natives received

medical treatment that otherwise they would not have received has the U.S. not intervened; while

there are no concrete numbers the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps, Medical Corps and Nurse Corps

were directly responsible for the lives of most of East Timor’s wounded and sick. This showed

that even our smallest allies would receive the 100% support of the U.S. and the world’s greatest

military force.

The U.S. military is often known for one thing--its proficient military operations due to

strenuous training only we can provide. This training is provided to underdeveloped allies that

have no concrete training regiments so that they may protect themselves in future conflicts

instead of calling for our help. We indirectly help countries survive by ensuring they adapt to our

training and build their own military through mentoring from ours. While media sources in the

U.S cover only that we go into countries guns blazing ready to kill, it is not the truth. While in

Syria, we cover operations ourselves but as well as train the rebel forces to stand up for

themselves and become a force against their oppressive government. In Ethiopia, for example,

they are under the development of their own military force and as part of the Combined Joint

Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) the U.S. has provided an extensive training regimen

for the Ethiopian infantry division to help them model their structure to the one of the United

States Marine Corps (Popejoy). While they were to model their structure to ours, we did not just

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force them to conform to our ways; we made sure the training was in line with their land as well

as they could understand all the material we used by translating every piece of literature into

their native tongue as well as have the field operations training in the area where most Ethiopian

training is handled. Once the logistics was taken care of, the U.S. Marines instructed the

Ethiopians on “duties and responsibilities of a leader: leadership ethics; land navigation; platoon

movement formations; and how to conduct reconnaissance patrols and squad drills”(Popejoy)

which in turn made the Ethiopian infantry evolve from a fighting force to an intelligent, and

professional, machine. While no actual fighting was involved, this training proved to be

immensely useful for the U.S. as it trained its junior Marines to become skilled leaders as well as

the Ethiopians to establish a stronger military to stop aggressors from causing harm to their

country. Training foreign allies can also bring about a new regime for their governments, as is

the case with Egypt Army mid-level officers. While protesters are calling for a regime change

with no avail, these officers have been trained by the U.S. in “the values of a democratic society,

such as human rights and civilian rule over the military” (Cairo). This potentially opens the idea

of democracy in Egypt without any fighting as military officers feel that the structure of the U.S.

is superior to that of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The U.S. continues military training

operations with Egyptian military just to solidify the idea of democracy in those officers to

pressure the Chief of Staff for a change, which the U.S. hopes for without the need for a civil war

or any aggression from outside governments.

While the military provides many kinds of aid all over the world, its primary focus is to

protect and defend the Unites States of America. This is done with highly skilled military forces

and well thought out and coordinated raids and battles, to provide security to our country and our

allies. This is exemplified in Operation Red Dawn and Operation Neptune Spear in which the

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U.S. captured Saddam Hussein and Executed Osama Bin Laden. Saddam Hussein was Iraq’s

President from 1979 to 2003, and ruled his country with an iron fist with the death toll of his

people in the 250,000s (Evan and Dehghanpisheh). While the U.S. and U.K. couldn’t involve

themselves due to international treaties, it was rumored that Saddam was manufacturing and

storing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD); this would later become a reason the U.S.

intervened with Iraq. It was also rumored that Saddam was in contact and a driving force with

Al-Queda, the terrorist group behind the mass terrorist attack on the world trade center, making

him world enemy number 1 (Evan and Dehghanpisheh). These rumors were enough for The

Bush administration and the prime minister of England, Tony Blair, to go into action. For the

sake of national security and the safety of Iraq, the U.S., the U.K. and many allied countries

agreed that Saddam was to be captured and brought to trial for his atrocities. Many attempts were

made to Saddam, including a “laser-guided 2,000-pound bombs at the beginning and toward the

end of the invasion of Iraq”(Evan and Dehghanpisheh). However, these attempts were hopeless

and Saddam escaped and hid while keeping a presence in his country. It wasn’t until December

13, 2003, that Saddam was captured in a bunker on one of his compounds during Operation Red

Dawn (Evan and Dehghanpisheh). This operation brought peace to the unrest of the civilian

population as many lived in fear of reprisal if they uttered a word of Saddam, his whereabouts, or

anything pertaining to him. While the U.S. captured Saddam, they did not judge him; instead

they left his fate to his people and turned him over to the new Iraqi government. This operation

not only protected the U.S. from possible future terrorist attacks but also the Iraqi people from

more casualties at the hands of a tyrant. While our media brings up that our military does more

harm than good, it’s quite the contrary; if Saddam Hussein was left to do as he pleased Iraq

would have seen more bloodshed and quite possibly would have landed a severe blow to the U.S.

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in devastating terrorist attacks. Furthermore, Al Queda, the terrorist group synonymous with the

9/11 world trade center bombings, became a national threat to the U.S. and its allies. Its leader,

Osama Bin Laden, was responsible for coordinating every attack made by this group and thus

was world enemy number 1 for the U.S (Inkster). To protect countries in the Middle East such as

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq as well as the United States, Operation Neptune Spear was

established. This operation was coordinated by the CIA and members of Seal Team 6, with years

of planning Osama was finally found and executed in his home in Abbottabad (Inkster). This

operations success could go one of both ways for the terrorist group with some parts disbanding

and others swearing revenge on the U.S. for executing their leader, the strong terrorist regime

was hurt in a big way and many of the countries saw it as a win, not just for the U.S. but for the

neighboring countries that were having their people killed for not housing Al-Queda operatives.

These forms of protection and security were vital for how the world viewed the U.S. despite

negative connotations; to stand up for our country, to protect our allies and even countries that

were being oppressed in ways not in line with our way of living.

Under scrutiny from our own media, as well as other governments, the United States is

made out to be an aggressor that is entrenched in a culture of violence, rather than a force that

can bring about peace. However, in reality, the U.S. attempts positive resolutions like

humanitarian assistance and foreign military training to avert aggression, and it resorts to

security operations only when the need is dire. Our military presence has brought about much

good for the world, and while we may not be perfect, our U.S. military has certainly stopped

more than its fair share of nightmare scenarios with the medical support given to Haiti, training

to Egypt, and toppling of corrupt nationals in the Middle East.

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Works Cited

Inkster, Nigel. “The Death of Osama Bin Laden”. Survival, EBSCO Publishing, July 2011,

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Popejoy, Mary. "Training In Ethiopia." Soldiers Magazine, Gale General OneFile, June 2007,

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Sneden, Priscilla. " Salvation Haiti disaster relief: Navy, Marine Corps answers call to aid Haiti”.

Marines Magazine, Military and Intelligence Database Collection, March 2010,

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The Monitor's Editorial Board. “America's best agents in Cairo: US-trained Egyptian officers”.

Christian Science Monitor, Academic Search Complete, February 2003,

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Thomas, Evan, and Babak Dehghanpisheh. “Inside Red Dawn: Saddam Up Close: Out of the

hole: Saddam struggled and spat, until a commando slugged him. Behind one of the most

intense manhunts in history”. Newsweek, Military and Intelligence Database Collection,

December 2003,

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Services." Military Medicine, Academic Search Complete, January 2006,

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