Obesity is being treated as a worldwide health epidemic. It makes sense. There is a whole slew of health problems that comes with being overweight. But obesity may very well be the key to saving an untold number of lives. How? By preventing militaries from being properly staffed:
Minnesota kids are too fat to fight.
That’s the message from a group of retired generals and admirals who say the state’s kids are too fat, eat too poorly, and don’t get enough exercise to qualify to join the military.
As part of a nationwide effort, the generals and admirals recommend more physical education classes and better meals in schools and more walking and biking trails in the state’s communities to get kids in fighting trim.
The report, released today, doesn’t pull any punches, even in the title: “Too Fat, Frail, and Out-of-Breath to Fight.”
If a military isn’t properly staffed it can’t go into a bunch of foreign countries and murder their people. Imagine if the United States lacked the personnel to invalid Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and every other country we’ve invaded for no good reason. 1.3 million lives could have potentially been saved [PDF].
As an aside it’s also worth noting the state’s motivation in fighting obesity. It’s not because the state feels as though it should be doing whatever it can to protect the health of its subjects. The only motivation it has in fighting obesity is to ensure it has enough meat for the grinder. Once again the state demonstrates that it doesn’t love you, you’re just a resource for it to use.