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.”
It’s Canadian food, I’m sure it’s sufficiently bad.
Timmy’s makes some good, nutritious deli stuff...along with their donuts and coffee.
Tim Hortons is awesome.
That’s HATE_SPEECH! “Canda” is almost a “defineable group”.
Has Obama taken Kobe beef off the Whitehouse menu yet?
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.”
Hey, Mr. Hall -- does this mean it's been an amusement park for the last 8+ years?
I agree; Timmy’s is awesome. The closest one is in Huber Heights OH. Regardless of the time, if I’m on my way east on I 70, I stop in for coffee and a boston creme and take a box of 20 Tim Bits home with me.
We can’t get one in Indy soon enough.
It is getting harder and harder not to hate these people!
I really appreciated the White Castle, Coney Island hotdog joints and the Isley ice cream outlets we had in Korea.
“To tell you the truth, I was wondering why they had these things over there in the first place.”
We should give our soldiers as many of the “comforts” of home as we can.
Is that the one on 70 near Dayton? I've been to one in that area.
There is a big difference between hate and righteous indignation. This calls for righteous indignation which is what is building up within right thinking people.
Then why don’t we send over their entire families to be with them, and build suburban homes with playgrounds and shopping malls on the bases? Is this a war or a Peace Corps mission?
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Mall of America had Camp Snoopy which our locals used to call Camp Shoot-me.
That’s the one.
These military commanders are becoming mere extensions of the Obama marxist “punish the achievers” mentality.
what does a little bit of home fast food have to do with a war zone? If the contractor wants to enter a war zone, and sell the food for the soldiers, then let them.
Better than that local crap and “fresh” food, that will put you down for three days in a hallucinegenic, sweatin’ stupor.
Morale is all about making soldiers feel a little better about where they are at. Bad move.
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