U.S. General bans fast food for Dutch soldiers

Posted on May 1, 2010 in Health | 8 comments

350 Dutch soldiers who crave a Whopper with cheese at Afghan province of Kandahar won’t be able to have it their way any longer.

The US commander General Stanley McChrystal has ordered to shut down the fast-food restaurants Burger King and Pizza Hut on the army base, they can close their doors on the international military base writes the AD.

He believes the restaurants are a luxury and do not belong in a war situation.
The Dutch complained that the General would impose strict lifestyle on others in this way.

While the local government in California has banned toys with the Happy Meal, the Dutch soldiers in the Afghan province of Kandahar are left without any fast food.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal launched a review last year of the amenities available at the Kandahar and Bagram airfields, and concluded that the fast-food joints posed a distraction from the task at hand.

The restaurants, which have been around for about five years, have a pared-down menu of what’s on offer at home. For some, their greasy treats provided a welcome respite after months of cafeteria servings on the base or military rations out in the battlefield.

A recent article in the Washington Post writes that increasing rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, with potential recruits increasingly too fat to serve.

“Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military,” generals John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairs of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a commentary.

Obesity disqualified more potential recruits for military service than any other medical factor, the two former commanders wrote in the Washington Post.

Photo by isafmedia

More at The Dutch Daily News

Tags: , , , , ,

  • Frank

    There is nothing wrong with a pizza or a tasty grilled burger from the Burger King! You should not eat it every day like many Americans do! Fortunately Netherlands will leave Afghanistan soon!

  • Michael

    I must admit the general is in his right to call this a luxury that wasn’t needed, but it would have made more sense to never have allowed it in the first place instead of closing it after five long years. This will hurt moral. Then again after the honorable general Norman Schwarzkopf the U.S military has gone pretty much downhill were the leadership is concerned. This article’s header would have been amusing if it weren’t for the fact several general’s have talked ill about their dutch allies without even knowing what goes on.

  • Sean

    You should see the artery clogging slop they serve on American military bases. Why not let these men who are so far from home have a little taste of home?

  • Garrick

    Fast food is party food. It is nutritionally and chemically designed to keep a civilian population docile and content. The meat is of the lowest quality and full of hormones that feminize men. This is another reason males gain weight on a fast food diet. These are not good characteristics for fighting military. Fast food is mildly addictive, and thoughts of when the next burger intrude at times of unrelated activity.

    We should be providing fast food restaurants to the enemy instead of our troops.

  • jose bloez

    Fast food has no place in the arena of battle, the Gen is right on target, the Men are there to fulfill a mission objective, and the need is to remained concentrating on that goal at all times during the tour of duty. Such niceties as as greasy burger while appealing, in some way does not seem the right fit for the soldier in the field, it is in fact is an unwarranted distraction from the mission purpose. Solid call on behalf of the the Gen.

  • trippin

    The silver lining for obese children is that they won’t be fodder for the corporations that deploy mama’s boy purveyors of mayhem like this freak to do their bidding in securing their efforts to exploit all things and people for their own personal wealth.

  • MIchael Milligan

    Fast food of this nature is killing us. If you want to live a relatively long life – do not eat it !

    Noble move on the general’s part.

  • Joe

    I have been to Afghanistan. I was deployed to Zabul, and we made frequent trips to Kandahar. It was like a vacation whenever we got to go there. Its was nice getting a whopper, a Subway sub, or a pizza from Pizza Hut after eating crap from our “Dining Facilities.” Every person downrange has a thought or a dream about what they will endulge in upon returning home. You can’t make a solider focus by stripping away the small piece of home he has. If anything it will make it long more for some delicious goodness when he should be watching the fence line. I like it when people that spend weeks at a time in the battlefield make decisions for people that spend years at a time there.