Obesity affecting Homeland Security

[kjohn23]

Items to ponder:
Weighty Issue For The Military: Fat Recruits
by: Associated Press


Military officials fear the U-S war on terror is being compromised by the homefront's battle of the bulge.

Obesity is taking a heavy toll on the armed forces, as record numbers of recruiting-age men and women weigh too much to qualify for enlistment.

Thousands of troops are struggling to shed excess pounds, and thousands have been booted out of the service in recent years because they couldn't.

An Army nutrition expert says unless weight rules are relaxed, the country is going to have a harder time fielding an Army.

He says America's bulging waistlines are ``becoming a national security issue.''

Ironically, the big concern used to be soldiers who were too skinny.

The school lunch program was introduced after World War Two because Congress worried that too many high schoolers were malnourished and unfit to fight.





Copyright 2005 WEAR-TV

[mcaldwell]

So there is your way out of service boys, Burger King!

The comment on relaxing the rules is a little disturbing though. What are they going to need to do next, widening seats in troop transports, bigger bunks in ships (which I'm sure few naval staff would argue with), and the long term medical expenses? There are bound to be a lot of unforeseen consequences to that one.

Who wants to go in wth me on a new business?

G.I. Jenny Craig.

[Rossco]

I can see it now. A bunch of sweatty fat guys, panting and jiggling down the trail on a 5 mile run. They might remind you of Newman, from Sinefeld. What will they do when they are told to tighten up the line?

[CAPPYY]

This is why we need to keep up the good work on those high tech weapons. As they improve, we will get to the point where we can just sit on a couch, push a button on a joy stick, and "POOF" goes the enemy! Then we will have the largest army in the world.

[hwoods]

He Who Dies With The Most Food Wins.........

[FlyingKiwi]

Cavalry, Tanks, Bombers.

Makes no difference, I think the quote since Clausewitz's time (1812 etc) has always been

"You can take ground by any means, but to hold it you need INFANTRY."

Modernising that to..

"They MUST be fit enough and hard enough to march to the sound of battle, THEN give 100% to the fight."

Relaxing standards would be akin to watching the following.

AP Reporter in the future.

"Today 1,000 overweight Marines puffed up the beach through the sand, totaly out of breath..."


"Fight hard. Play Hard" means exactly that. don't P!ss about.