Fat kids to fight for America!

The generals are waging war on fat kids. The fat kids will fight back. Who says a fat kid can't fight? I well remember at school that it was the fat kids who came out best. They could sit on you, thereby obtaining unconditional surrender. They packed a good punch, too! "Been in the wars, again?" would come a schoolmasterly querie (without requiring a reasoned answer). And it was the fat boys (not many, I hasten to add) that could use weight to push another boy off balance. The only fat kid that can't fight is a sick fat kid.

I think the generals assume too much. John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, have declared, "Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military. We consider this problem so serious from a national security perspective that we have joined more than 130 other retired generals, admirals and senior military leaders in calling on Congress to pass new child nutrition legislation." Very interesting!

I think this reveals more than we think it does. This is not about fat kids as such. This is about the US Army and the other services making sure that the pool of new recruits stays lean and mean. You see, the Army doesn't recruit from WASP backgrounds or from those nice white middle class "gated communities". No, they recruit mainly from impoverished backgrounds, black and white. It is from the less well off that the snacking and over-eating exists.

Having lived a while in the US, I can reasonably say that, if I went wandering round a shopping mall, the fat kids would not be the rich kids. OK, there are some fat rich kids, but this issue has to do with impoverishment and boredom. Two factors that help sustain the existence of fat kids.

The generals put some kind of patriotism first, by suggesting that the Army will have a hard time weeding out the thin kids. "We must act, as we did after World War II, to ensure that our children can one day defend our country, if need be", say the generals. I do not see the main priority to fight obesity is so that a weight-loss champion can immediately pass the Army physical. It should be about health reasons only.

Anyway, when Captain Cook visited the South Sea Islands he met a few good fat fighters he hadn't bargained with, Sumo wrestlers give a good bashing to each other, and fat people appear to be able to pull two-ton trucks, as on World's Strongest Man (albeit with more muscle than fat).

If the generals have issues with weight, then perhaps Marjorie Dawes might help them out?