What the U.S. Military Can Do Logistically ‘Is Limited Only by Our Imagination and Creativity’

April 12, 2020 (EIRNS)—Retired Adm. James Stavridis, writing in an op-ed column posted April 11 in Bloomberg, provides an optimistic view on what the U.S. military can do for the country in response to the pandemic. He does it in the form of an email interview with retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Ramsay, “the best military logistician I know.” Ramsay served on Stavridis’ staff when Stavridis was NATO commander and he said he’s known Ramsay for decades. Ramsay explains, for example, that the military’s transportation system can move people, equipment and supplies to hotspots and wherever else they’re needed, including on a time-sensitive basis.

“If necessary, the military can also transport very ill and contagious patients using air transportable isolation units.... It can also provide logistics supplies on hand, such as the personal protective equipment desperately needed to protect first responders and medical personnel, as well as other medical supplies such as disinfectants and medications. The military can be called on to construct field hospitals and provide everything necessary to operate them, such as power and clean drinking water, or to convert existing buildings to hospitals as they did in New York with the Javits Center.”

Ramsay concluded: “What the military can do is limited for the most part only by our imagination and creativity.”

Consider, then, what could be achieved by retooling the military in all nations in the direction of an international corps of engineers to take on the coronavirus pandemic by putting an end to poverty and underdevelopment once and for all.