German Soldiers “Too Fat to Fight”

German media and officials are irritated by a fresh revelation about the 3,600 German troops stationed in the north of Afghanistan: they drink a lot of beer and wine. The news came on top of constant complaints from other NATO allies about the German contingent’s aversion to fighting, and a widespread sentiment in Germany that its forces should not be in Afghanistan at all.

According to a German parliamentary report, the country’s soldiers in Afghanistan downed about 1.7 million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine in 2007. During the first six months of 2008, a further 896,000 pints of beer were shipped to the troops.

The report was particularly galling to other NATO forces, such as those of the United States and Britain, whose bases are dry. U.S. and British troops are engaged in heavy fighting in other parts of Afghanistan, whereas the Germans are kept away from the frontline and their combat role is tightly restricted by government-imposed limits.

The news was a gift, however, to the U.S. and British media, who combined the latest story with an earlier German armed forces study released in March, which found that more than 40 percent of German soldiers aged 18 to 29 were overweight – compared with 35 percent of German civilians of the same age. About 70 percent of the soldiers were heavy smokers and nearly one in 10 was described as clinically obese.

The March report concluded that the rank and file drank too much beer and ate too many sausages, while avoiding fruit and vegetables. It also blamed a stifling military bureaucracy for contributing to soldiers' "passive lifestyle."

The combination of the two reports resulted in headlines such as German soldiers deemed "too fat to fight" in The Times of London, German Supply Lines Flow with Beer in Afghanistan in The Washington Post and German soldiers are "too fat to fight" Taliban because they drink so much (while our boys go dry) in Britain’s Daily Mail.

The story was also heavily covered in the German media and in France. After discussing the criticism of the German soldiers, the Süddeutsche Zeitung cites Thomas Raabe, an official spokesman, as saying that a breakdown of the figures shows that each soldier drinks 0.77 liters of beer a day, less than the 1 liter daily allowance. The article, Boozers in the Bundeswehr, adds, however, there are several German-run shops not associated with the army that also sell beer. In defense of the soldiers, Jens Plötner, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, noted that even traveling journalists, and delegations such as one headed by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), consume alcohol on trips to Afghanistan.

The leading weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that the small Free Democrat opposition party (FDP) is scoring political points from the revelations. The FDP’s main complaint is that not enough is being done to keep the soldiers occupied in their spare time. Beer shipments to Afghanistan, however, are likely to increase, as the government has promised to commit more troops to the region and extend their stay until to December, 2009.

In the French center-right daily, Le Figaro, Berlin correspondent Patrick Saint-Paul notes that some German officials have come to the soldiers’ support. According to Saint-Paul, however, German media reports say that soldiers have balked at accomplishing their mission in the foothills of Hindu Kush and some rely on their “beer ration” to alleviate the harsh local conditions. Saint-Paul says some analysts are concerned that the revelations will damage the German Army’s professional reputation. He attributes German unease over military intervention to the traumatic events of World War II, which resulted in the current strong strain of pacifism.

Saint-Paul’s report thus comes closest to one of the key aspects of modern Germany that is often overlooked. After World War II, the victorious allies, notably the United States and Britain, decided to make sure that Germany never fought another aggressive war by turning its armed forces into a non-militaristic, largely toothless body with as much civic as military responsibility. If pacifism and an aversion to the use of military force are flourishing in Germany today, that is partly because the United States and Britain achieved their post-war goals so well.

Also see The Guardian's German troops tank up for Afghan mission and The Daily Telegraph's German troops in Afghanistan drank more than 1.8m pints last year.