Throughout the presidential election campaign much talk has centered around the sometimes divisive issues of healthcare and the war on terror. At the Egyptian Field Hospital at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, these issues don't just intersect; they collide.

Bagram lies about 27 miles north of the Afghan capital of Kabul. In the past, the base has been known as one of the United States Military's main staging areas in the Middle East, and as the home of one of the more controversial military prisons in the region. More recently, the base has begun to garner a reputation for being the location of one of the busiest and most successful field hospitals in Afghanistan, where distrust towards American occupiers runs deep. The benefits, both practical and diplomatic, of a world class medical facility on an American military base, which is open to Afghan civilians, cannot be overstated. This fact is not lost on Ahmed Ashry, the hospital's Chief of Doctors.

In a recent interview with the American Forces Press Service's reporter George Cloutier, Ashry went into detail about his vision for a top flight medical facility and what it would mean in a rapidly changing (but still fragile) Afghanistan, "When I came here, I told the commander I wanted to change everything," he said. Ashry is a Cairo native who holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Ophthalmology; he also happens to be a Colonel in the Egyptian Air Force. According to the report, Ashry's first order of business was developing a patient tracking system, based on the system used at the American hospital at Bagram. His second task was to expand the hospital from 20 inpatient beds to 30, and build a new intensive-care unit and operating room. After noticing the positive effect of these reforms, Ashry tried something even more radical: actually treating all the patients in need of treatment. Up until this point the hospital would only treat up to 100 patients a day, for a one week period Ashry threw out the cap on treatment. "Why should we take only 100 patients?" he told the American Forces Press Service. "We should take all the patients. So I did an experiment; one week, we took all of the patients." On the day the new policy was implemented the hospital treated 520 Afghans. "I can sleep at night with a good conscience, because I don't say ‘no' to the patients," Ashry said.

On top of all of the practical benefits of Ashry's reforms, there is something much more subtle being established: trust. Ashry said, "Some people don't have the idea that the Americans have come to give freedom to them. When I speak to them I ask, ‘OK, if you are correct, why did the Americans set up a hospital for you? We came here with the permission of the Americans, and they gave us equipment and drugs.'" Ashry acknowledged that the Egyptians had an automatic advantage in working with the Afghans by way of their shared religious and cultural backgrounds, but he also saw the need to gently build up a rapport between the Americans and Afghans. He eventually asked for volunteers from the American hospital to come in once a week and lend a hand; not with medical tasks, but with seemingly mundane chores like handing out food and water. "Day by day, the Afghans begin to think, these are the Americans," Ashry said. "Every day they come here to give me food and water, they give me help, and they speak to me." Ashry told Cloutier that since the Americans have begun volunteering, patients have started to specifically seek out their care, something that was thought impossible just a few months ago.

The diplomatic value of quality medical care is a lesson being learned in field hospitals all across the region. At Balad Air Base in Iraq, 93% of Iraqi civilians seeking treatment have been successfully cared for, according to the Associated Press. "There are people with injuries that are brought here, and I say this with confidence, if they went anywhere else in the world, they would not survive," said Hospital Commander, Col. Mark Mavity. According to the report, Iraqi patients are surviving at higher rates partly because of increased bed space. As violence declines and fewer Americans are brought in for treatment, Iraqis are able to stay longer and receive better care. Mavity told the AP, "We now have the luxury of time and bed space to keep them here a little bit longer. That is a big reason why our numbers have gone up." Don't just take it from the Americans, Yassir Mustafa Majid suffered severe injuries in a September car bombing, "If I wasn't brought here, I would have died," he said.

Regardless of one's feelings about the current military endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan, most can agree that saving the lives of innocent civilians is a positive thing. There is no question that the United States has damaged its own reputation greatly in the Middle East over the past few years; however these hospitals could be the foundation for a new relationship based on trust and gratitude in the coming years. The Afghans and Iraqis treated in these facilities will leave there with mended bodies, and the memories of the Americans who helped guide them back to health.