Suchergebnisse

Examination of the relationship between U.S. energy policies and the Middle East, the present status of several important policies and what might be done to improve them; discussion of prospects that such improvement will take place

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently established a medical surveillance system to respond to the health care needs of both military personnel and veterans. A medical surveillance system involves the ongoing collection and analysis of uniform information on deployments, environmental health threats, disease monitoring, medical assessments, and medical encounters and its timely dissemination to military commanders, medical personnel, and others. GAO and others have reported extensively on weaknesses in DOD's medical surveillance capability and performance during the Gulf War and Operation Joint Endeavor. Investigations into the unexplained illnesses of Gulf War veterans revealed DOD's inability to collect, maintain, and transfer accurate data on the movement of troops, potential exposures to health risks, and medical incidents during deployment. DOD improved its medical surveillance system under Operation Joint Endeavor, which provided useful information to military commanders and medical personnel. However, several problems persist. DOD has several efforts under way to improve the reliability of deployment information and enhance its information technology capabilities. Although its recent policies and reorganization reflect a commitment to establish a comprehensive medical surveillance system, much needs to be done to implement the system. To the extent DOD's medical surveillance capability is realized, VA will be better able to serve veterans and provide backup to DOD in times of war."

References at end of most of the chapters. ; Mode of access: Internet.

"1 June 1978." ; Shipping list no.: 90-570-P. ; "Supersedes AR 190-30, 7 November 1973; and . DAPE-HRE-PO message 041850Z MAR 75, Subj: Recording Telephone Communications at MP Operations Desks"--P. i. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Opinions are presented as to the United States government's responsibility to prevent high casualty rates among minorities in the military, to provide for the welfare of recruits unable to complete the first term of service, & to take active measures to prevent emergence of all-nonwhite units. Charles C. Moskos, Jr. (Northwestern University, Evanston Ill) notes the increasing representation of blacks among army enlisted personnel, especially at lower grades. High black casualties in a future military action could irremediably undermine the army's effectiveness. The army's role in integrating lower class youth into higher strata of United States society has depended largely on its not being regarded as a means of upgrading such youth. Reliance on volunteer service & econometric thinking has led to an army unrepresentative of the United States population. Greater social representativeness is necessary if the army is to remain effective in these & other areas. John Sibley Butler (University of Texas, Austin) notes that for the situation to be defined as problematic, the central issue must be white middle class nonparticipation. Measures are needed to make military service more economically beneficial & to give it a better image. Alan Ned Sabrosky (Catholic University, Washington, DC) notes the need to decide on relative weights given to moral, political, & military considerations. Representativeness is not particularly a political-military concern, nor is an unrepresentative army historically anomalous or necessarily nonfunctional. The army is not primarily a welfare or rehabilitative institution, but a military one. These problems will persist into the 1980s. Corrective measures should stress recruitment of more capable individuals, & abandonment of attempts to achieve general social integration through military institutions' corrective measures. Alvin J. Schnexnider (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond) finds current military racial problems affected by changes in the national political economy, basic alterations in the concept of military participation, dilemmas of the white minority, the rise of neoconservatism, & the growth of representative bureaucracies. Appropriate measures would include reinstitution of the draft, measures toward employment of first-term failures in Veterans Administration & department of Interior facilities, & concern for racial integration. W. H. Stoddard.