Too Fat (and Too Stupid) for War?

Published in El Mundo
(Spain) on 8 February 2010
by Pablo Pardo (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Patricia Gonzalez Darriba. Edited by Katy Burtner.
The U.S. Army has found a new and fatal enemy. We are not talking about the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) from Afghanistan and Iraq. Or the North Korean missiles, or the Iranian program.

No, this time we are talking about the fatness of the soldiers. As stated in the latest medical surveillance report from the U.S. Department of Defense, almost five percent of American soldiers suffer from obesity problems. This number might be higher, since only the soldiers diagnosed as obese by medical authorities are shown. In many cases, nevertheless, doctors don’t show this disorder in the reports.

The tendency also is overwhelmingly increasing. In 2003, roughly between one and two percent of the American military suffered from obesity. In its study, the Pentagon explains that this problem actually is the consequence of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, and their anxiety and psychological after-effects.

And, moreover, the obesity epidemic affecting the USA — and a great part of the world with it — is combined with legal and educational problems, and can represent serious consequences for the country’s defense. No more and no less than 75 percent of American youths between 17 and 24-years-old don’t fulfill the physical and intellectual requirements for Army enrollment, as said in official statistics. As a matter of fact, John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared that “we've never had this problem of young people being obese like we have today.”

According to this information, three-quarters of American youths are ineligible to join the military because they are overweight, can't pass entrance exams, have dropped out of high school or had run-ins with the law. This problem is serious enough to form an informal commission to analyze it, composed of a former NATO commander-in-chief and war architect back in Kosovo in 1999, Gen. Wesley Clark, and Shalikashvili himself, among others.

From a historical point of view, this situation has few precedents. Usually, empires fall down because of an excessive expansion of their borders (as occurred by the U.K., or the U.S. in the case that it keeps embracing wars in the Middle East, as it did in Iraq), massive debt (the case of Spain, that could happen to the United States, too) or a prolonged political crisis (Rome or the USSR). But never before has an empire sunk due to its soldiers’ fatness. With this regard, “American exceptionalism” can make history.


¿Demasiado gordos (y demasiado tontos) para la guerra?

Las Fuerzas Armadas de Estados Unidos han encontrado un nuevo y mortal enemigo. No son los Artefactos Explosivos Improvisados (IED) de Afganistán e Irak. Ni los misiles norcoreanos o el programa iraní.

No, esta vez se trata de la gordura de los soldados. Según el último Informe de supervisión médica del Departamento de Defensa de Estados Unidos, casi el 5% de los soldados estadounidenses sufren problemas de obesidad. La cifra podría ser más alta, porque sólo recoge a aquellos militares a los que las autoridades médicas califican como obesos. En muchos casos, sin embargo, los facultativos no recogen esa enfermedad en sus partes.

La tendencia, además, es abrumadoramente al alza. En 2003, apenas entre el 1% y el 2% de los militares estadounidenses tenían sobrepeso. En su estudio, el Pentágono explica que este problema es, en realidad, consecuencia de las Guerras de Irak y Afganistán, con sus secuelas de ansiedad y problemas psicológicos.

No sólo eso: la epidemia de obesidad que afecta a Estados Unidos —y, con él, a gran parte del mundo— se combina con problemas educativos y legales, y puede tener consecuencias muy graves para la defensa del país. Nada más y nada menos que un 75% de los jóvenes estadounidenses de entre 17 y 24 años de edad no cumplen los requisitos físicos e intelectuales necesarios para alistarse en las Fuerzas Armadas, según las estadísticas oficiales. De hecho, el ex comandante en jefe del Alto Estado Mayor John Shalikashvili, ha declarado que "nunca hemos tenido este problema de obesidad entre los jóvenes".

De acuerdo con esos datos, tres cuartas partes de los jóvenes estadounidenses están demasiado gordos, han sido expulsados de sus escuelas, tienen problemas legales pendientes —frecuentemente por haber cometido pequeños delitos— o, aunque tengan un expediente académico y policial 'limpio' carecen de las mínimas aptitudes intelectuales para alistarse. El problema es lo suficientemente serio como para que se haya constituido una comisión informal para analizarlo, en la que están, entre otros, el ex comandante en jefe de la OTAN y arquitecto de la Guerra de Kosovo en 1999, el general Wesley Clark, y el propio Shalikashvili.

Desde un punto de vista histórico, la situación tiene pocos precedentes. Normalmente, los imperios caen por extenderse en exceso (como fue el caso de Reino Unido o EEUU si sigue embarcándose en guerras en Oriente Medio como la de Irak), endeudamiento masivo (es lo que le pasó a España y lo que puede suceder en Estados Unidos) o una prolongada crisis política (Roma y la Unión Soviética). Nunca, sin embargo, un imperio se hundió por la obesidad de sus soldados. En esto, el 'excepcionalismo americano' puede crear Historia.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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