Quote Originally Posted by kotkinjs1 View Post
I think the true lesson learned is that sometimes the US doesn't need to be the only surgeon operating, even if we have the sharpest of scalpels. ;o)
Ah, but do we have the sharpest of scalpels? Perhaps? Are they all in the right place, available to be be used? Do we have enough of them?

Can we deliver the covertly? Not totally because we purposely neglected development of that capability so that we could not deliver them; that way no one would get cut or contaminated with body fluids by accident. Do we have the political will to use those scalpels? That's the question that needs answering, that and delivery capability (which we've only known we needed since 1951; reinforced in 1980...).

Do we also have in addition to scalpels and the Sledgehammers, a few other intermediate tools (and the will to accept casualties and potential prisoners / hostages made of those all those tools and their wielders...)
Beyond that, maybe the surgeon is mistakenly operating with the left hand if he is in fact right handed (mucking it up by using the DoD when the true solution lies with the other aspects of national power mainly wielded through the Interagency).
I very much agree -- so did many on this thread: LINK and it's cropped up several times in other threads here -- most agree with you. As I said, ambidextrousness is nice -- but even better is one who is highly skilled using the correct hand for the job.
Ultimately, to run with that analogy, we enlisted a bunch of Physician's Assistants to help us out in the initial and ongoing triage (the CT effort using NATO in OEF), but maybe the time for triage is long past over...
Too early to tell, patient not yet stabilized.
and what we really need are other doctors, not just PAs, who have vested and similar interests with the patient; doctors with names like Dr. Russia, Dr. China, Dr. Iran.
Mmmm. Perhaps, though it might be a very good idea to insure that our assisting surgeons do not have a whopping life insurance policy on the patients.

A missed sponge -- or more difficult to spot, a simple moldy pea -- sewed in can cause sepsis. Surgeons tend to use only people they know and trust on their teams for a good reason; some people just will not play fair and a good many people in this world love nothing better than to see the big guy lose one. Though they of course would never be so crass as to say that...

Being ambidextrous is highly beneficial. Having a variety of tools is highly beneficial. Or, how about avoiding any surgery with better preventive care and treatment; paying $2K a year for prescriptions beats paying than $50K for a surgery with a 60-70+ % historical loss rate; that would be even more beneficial.

Using understudies who resent being understudies and roundly object to even the thought is not so beneficial...

As I said earlier, be careful what you ask for, you may get it.