Posted on 03/26/2010 10:40:31 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus
OTTAWA -- Canada’s Tim Hortons coffee shop at Kandahar Airfield will remain open despite a shutdown of Pizza Hut, Burger King and other U.S. outlets deemed too luxurious by top American commanders of NATO troops.
“Kandahar Airfield Tim Hortons is an initiative to support our men and women in uniform for serving in Afghanistan,” Defence Department spokeswoman Megan MacLean said. “There are no plans to close the Tim Hortons.”
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who leads the International Security Assistance Force, has ordered most fast-food outlets on the boardwalk inside the airfield base shuttered.
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael T. Hall revealed the plan in a post on an ISAF blog last month.
“Many of you have heard that there are plans to shut down some of the ‘amenities’ throughout Afghanistan,” he wrote. “This is not rumour. It is fact. This is a war zone -- not an amusement park.”
Sgt. Maj. Hall said he and Gen. McChrystal had been looking for ways to do things more efficiently and to optimize ISAF resources from the moment they arrived in Afghanistan last summer. Gen. McChrystal is overseeing the surge in U.S. troops and resources over coming months.
“One of the ways we’re going to do that -- in order to accommodate the troop increase and get re-focused on the mission at hand -- is to cut back on some of the non-essentials. That includes some of the morale, welfare and recreation facilities throughout Afghanistan. In the coming weeks and months, concessions such as Orange Julius, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and Military Car Sales will close their doors.”
He said commanders across the battlefield are implementing additional cutbacks while still providing services within individual nations’ interests and regulations.
The Tim Hortons is located next to the American concessions, many of which will be closed. Operated from a 12-metre trailer, Canadian military support staff manages Tim’s and profits go to health and welfare programs for Canadian Forces members.
He said Green Beans Coffee would remain at bases across Afghanistan, and bazaars and businesses which employ Afghans and feed the local economy will still continue to operate.
Sgt. Maj. Hall also said there would be fewer first-run movie showings and a reduced amount of canned and bottled goods coming into the country.
“What it comes down to is focus, and to using the resources we have in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Supplying non-essential luxuries to big bases like Bagram and Kandahar makes it harder to get essential items to combat outposts and forward operating bases, where troops who are in the fight each day need to be resupplied with ammunition, food and water.”
You know,..soldiers and sailors fly in there at all times of the day and night...and usually these places are the only things open.
Plus,..eating at a place like this makes time go by quicker (not that I’m a big fast food fan) having a pizza and watching a DVD that you bought at the bazaar.
This needs to be relooked at. Bet they didn’t take a poll on this.
Unless,...they are just running out of space.
Yup, they are.
Ping to #34.
It is hatred of evil and the necessary motivation required to defeat it. Was our Lord’s attitude towards the hypocritical Pharissee’s congeniel and affable?
Did he close Burger King?
This is Dairy Queen, not DisneyWorld.
well,..when you rotate soldiers and marines into a multiple deployment cycle,..spinning the wheels off the war machine,...you damn well better be thinking about morale,..even if it comes in a little cardboard box.
did he do this for health reasons?
Marines would be far too happy if they were eating belly bombs and Whoppers. If they were happy Marines they would be less inclined to kill bad guys. That would only prolong the war and expose other Marines to danger. Far better to have unhappy Marines.
Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. are not just "morale boosters" at all . . . they are a symptom of a very serious problem -- that is, a very "un-serious" approach to military operations in this country.
Were these places making a profit?
when our country begins to take afghanistan serious, then the the correct decisions will be made. fast food is not the problem.
Comforting our soldiers has nothing to do with the length of this war. The stupid rules of engagement and fighting the war in the media is the reason for that. Hockey is nothing like war. I have no respect for anyone that wants to deny any comfort to our troops.
More than that. Does this mean they aren’t trying to bring Afghanistan out of its 7th century tribal warfare mentality?
Did who close Burger King?
When it comes to the communists in our government I can maintain both in infinite quantity in my mind.
Good and keep it that way.
Another thing they seem to be doing is giving 1 year tours. My Nephew-in-law has been spending 6 months a year in that part of the world since the 1st Gulf war. He did a full year at the beginning of the Iraq war and then a 9 month tour and then it has gone back to 6 months, mostly in Afghanistan. Now all of a sudden it is going to be a year.
Then there is the young man who is a Black Hawk pilot, they have sent them over there for a year tour and he is in some remote place in Afghanistan doing manual labor. They have few supplies and they get few packages. It took 3 months for the first package to get to him. He does have internet and talks to his wife everyday but they lack the basics when it comes to personal care and there is no where to purchase them, the women don’t even have adequate personal supplies, if you know what I mean, we sent them some.
He says that when they do receive packages they keep only what they really need and then they have started a kind of a co-op where others can get what they need.
Thank you for reminding me. I do want to have the mind of Christ. I need to hate evil while praying for my enemy. It is getting harder these days. His strength is perfected in weakness!
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