For Release Wednesday A United States military strategy based primarily on an ability to deploy troops anywhere it feels necessary will face heightened costs and risks in critical regions by 2025, owing to other nations' improved abilities to deny the U.S. access, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation. Anti-access and area denial are the two biggest threats to the United States' ability to project its military forces. Anti-access is the ability of a nation to keep the armed forces of another from entering its territory. Area denial tends to prevent an entity from operating in an area of tactical distance. Because of the increased availability and declining costs of militarily important technologies such as computers, networking and global positioning, potential adversaries are developing and fielding long-range sensing, targeting and precision strike capabilities, according to the report. “Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been able to use military force wherever and whenever it chose to do so, but as anti-access and area denial systems become more sophisticated, they are going to affect the ability of U.S. military forces to place troops into a specific country or region,” said Terrence K. Kelly, lead author of the study and a senior operations researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. The RAND study examines the motivations, technology and economics behind the adoption of anti-access and area denial capabilities. It considers why anti-access and area denial is so hard and costly to counter and whether the erosion of U.S. force projection capabilities is unavoidable. It also looks at how such countries as China, Russia and Iran might deploy these capabilities. The report recommends the U.S. military adopt a strategy based on improving its anti-access and area denial capabilities to increase the costs and risks for would-be regional aggressors, in cooperation with willing allies and partners. This strategy would require allies and partners to be more involved in their own defense against capable nations. Force projection would remain important, but would no longer enjoy the central place it currently holds in U.S. military policy. In conjunction with a revised approach to using force, the U.S. military also should use “power to coerce” capabilities to deter regional intimidation and low-grade aggression by imposing economic and political costs on those who threaten the U.S. and allied interests. The study, “Smarter Power, Stronger Partners, Volume I: Exploiting U.S. Advantages to Prevent Aggression,” can be found at www.rand.org. Other authors include David C. Gompert and Duncan Long. Research for the study was sponsored by the U.S. Army Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, Army Quadrennial Defense Review Office and conducted within the RAND Arroyo Center's Strategy and Resources Program. RAND Arroyo Center, part of the RAND Corporation, is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Army. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous.
Some of the most significant are health related. A considerable number of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), with about one in five experiencing a mild form of TBI commonly known as a concussion. Other common problems include posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, problematic alcohol use, and thoughts of suicide. Many veterans suffer from more than one health condition. In addition, many women and men experienced sexual trauma, including harassment and assaults, while in the military. That can have both mental and physical effects.
watch the video 
Three military service members share their stories of what it’s like returning home.
Are veterans getting the help they need?
In many ways, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which provides health care to a great number of veterans, offers care that is as good as or better than that provided by private or non-VHA public practices. But the accessibility and quality of services vary across the system. Several studies have shown, for example, that a large number of veterans don’t receive any treatment following diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use disorder, or depression. Many veterans don’t know how to apply for veterans’ mental health care benefits, are unsure if they are eligible, or are unaware that mental health care benefits are available.
Yes. Veterans have reported other barriers to seeking VHA health care services, including:
Credit Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com
Specifically, what services do veterans need?
They need a full spectrum of health care services—including prevention, diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation, education, counseling, and community support—to deal with a wide-ranging set of physical and medical issues. These services need to be focused on the problems specific to veterans. In some cases, that means increasing the number of health care providers offering a particular service. For example, many veterans don’t have access to mental health care professionals, so increasing the number of clinicians with expertise in this area could be helpful. In other cases, focusing specifically on veterans’ needs means providing more effective treatments, which may require new research to accomplish. For instance, improved treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorders need to be developed. How can we make sure veterans get good health care?
There are a number of ways, including:
In addition to health problems, some returning service members have other difficulties—such as economic or social challenges—readjusting to civilian life. For example, at times the unemployment rate for veterans who served after September 11, 2001, has been almost twice the rate for non-veterans who are about the same age. But overall, there is a lack of data and research to assess the economic, social, and health impacts of deployment on military service members and their families, which makes it difficult to know exactly their needs. Several federal departments and agencies collect data on the physical, psychological, social, and economic challenges facing veterans, but no database combines demographic and deployment data with health outcomes, treatment, access to care, or employment before and after deployment. If these data were linked and integrated, many key questions about the reintegration of veterans into civilian life could be answered.
Credit Shutterstock/By Bumble Dee
How many U.S. veterans are there?
There are more than 18 million veterans, per the 2017 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. About half of those veterans are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care program.
How do recent veterans differ from veterans of previous conflicts?
The troops engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan have included more women, parents of young children, and reserve and National Guard troops than in previous conflicts. Troops have been younger, more diverse, and have had a wider range of family backgrounds. They often served longer deployments with shorter intervals at home between missions.
Credit SDI Productions/Getty Images
What’s the impact of those differences?
The greater diversity of recent troops has created new kinds of needs among veterans. For example, women veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have a higher need for mental health care compared with women who served in other wars, likely due to the differences in the types of roles they had in the military. They are also more likely than male veterans to believe that they are not entitled to or eligible for veterans’ mental health services. Similarly, tailoring treatment to racial, ethnic, sexual minority, and homeless groups has been a challenge.
The depth and breadth of challenges faced by veterans varies and are the result of a complex interaction of many factors. Previous wars have demonstrated that veterans’ needs peak several decades after their war service. VHA needs to be ready to deliver the services veterans and their families will need in the years ahead. |
What were some of the challenges faced by the American military during the war?
Postagens relacionadas
direito autoral © 2024 aprendervalor Inc.
