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German Soldiers in the 'Stan: too drunk to....
Posted By Blackfive

The Daily Mail Online has a story about German soldiers having weight problems in Afghanistan...why? Check this out:

They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.

The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine.

The troops also downed 896,000 pints of beer in the first six months of this year, the Times reported...

TUBBY TEUTONS
German Soldiers Too Fat, Official Report Says
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 02,00.html

Some 40 percent of German soldiers are overweight, according to a parliamentary report presented on Tuesday. The report also says German military personnel smoke to much.

German soldiers are too fat, don't take enough exercise and smoke too much, according to an annual parliamentary report on the state of the country's armed services.

The report, due to be presented later on Tuesday, said that 40 percent of all army personnel are overweight, compared with 35 percent among civilians.

Some 8.5 percent of soldiers were even grossly overweight, the report said.

"Put simply: The soldiers are too fat, they don't take enough exercise and they're not careful enough about what they eat," lawmaker Reinhard Robbe, the parliament's commissioner for the armed forces, told a news conference.

"These are alarming results given that the army basically offers ideal facilities and each year spends 26 million euros on promoting elite sportsmen and women."

The problem was that this money wasn't having any impact on the general physical fitness of the troops, said Robbe. He called on Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung to ensure that the troops take more exercise.

Last year Robbe's report said barracks in western Germany were falling into disrepair, prompting the Defense Ministry to invest heavily in renovation.