Great Thread, wish I would have seen it when it started. I have a ton of thoughts, but also a lot of questions. I have been and will be blogging this subject a lot lately.

First let me say I see this type of humanitarian support to be a form of expeditionary warfare in the 21st century. Lets face it, the tools of war have changed, and I am excited to see the Navy take on the mission and do more with it. I explain my observations from the perspective of strategy here.

Second, this months issue of Proceedings is on Medicine, and a number of articles are related to this subject. You can check it out on the Naval Institute's website if you are a subscriber, although I will blog on the articles over the coming days if you are not a member and choose not to be.

Third, I have several questions. How do we measure effectiveness in humanitarian assistance ops? Statistics like number of shots, etc... aren't benchmarks. By the same token, how do we measure the effectiveness of regional partnerships that create the environment for health diplomacy? The Navy hasn't been in the business of programming humanitarian operations beyond the last few years, and the DoD less so. How should it be resourced?