Operation Enduring Freedom is about more than just routing out terrorist cells and blowing up training camps, but also improving living conditions in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, commander in chief of Central Command said.

Franks delivered a briefing at Central Command’s headquarters in Tampa Bay, Fla. on Feb. 25.

“We’ve talked many times about 26 million Afghans who in fact are in need of a great many things in this country. I remember several months ago, on an occasion where I was having a meeting with some anti-Taliban leaders inside Afghanistan that I asked them what could I do for them,” Franks said. “And of course I had a suspicion that they were going to ask me for weapons and munitions and a variety of things. But three of them said that the greatest need was for medical assistance and the provision of medical services to their people inside Afghanistan. And each of them mentioned the fact that females for a number of years had not been able to get medical treatment inside Afghanistan.”

Spanish Army Brigadier General Fernando Sanchez Lafuente spoke to reporters about what types of diseases were being treated and the way that the hospitals were set up.

“The main common diseases from the civilian people in Bagram are mainly, they need dental care,” Lafuente said. “After that, a lot of diseases in relation with the cold weather: sore throat, bronchitis, staph, flu and so on, so forth – and a few cases of malaria. As you know, the malaria disappears from Europe, disappear from North America, most of South America. But yet in Afghanistan … there are some minor cases of malaria, mainly in the children.

“The hospital provides the medical assistance in two different buildings: one for male and another one for female and children until they under 12 years old. So we are – as you know, Afghanistan, after 20 centuries in the same kind of life, it’s very difficult to change a custom straightaway. We must try to change step by step in this case,” Lafuente continued. “So this is a – in general terms, the Spanish hospital – there’s 30, 31, 32 doctors, a nurse – with different specialties and 19 for professional support. If you need to know something that, please ask me, and I try to answer as soon as possible.”

Leftenant Colonel Yousef Al-Hnaity from the Royal Jordanian Air Force explained his country’s contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom. Jordan has set up a hospital with 50 beds, four ambulances, a water purification system, and radiology, pharmaceutical, blood unit and casting departments.

“The field hospital deployed to Mazar-e Sharif, in terms with the staff members, has around 200, which consists 27 doctors, 45 nurses and 45 medics, have expertise in a variety of fields. The hospital staff is capable of performing major and minor surgeries,” Al-Hnaity said. “The hospital treated over 18,000 patients – and as you can see, more than 12,000 of them were women and children; and as you can see in the picture, this is a child, Afghani child being treated in the hospital with his father – and performed over 230 surgical operations since it was opened in February – sorry, in 8th January, 2002.”

On the Net: U.S. Central Command: http://www.centcom.mil