Though it is engaged in conflict across two regions, the US military makes an admirable effort to provide troops with the comforts of home.  Many bases across the region have banking facilities, military exchanges, and recognizable fast food restaurants; even Subway and Baskin Robbins grace US bases in the Middle Eastern desert.  Notably, these facilities are normally confined to the larger bases.  Forward operating bases and similar smaller locations often lack even basic facilities.

Apparently, General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander in Afghanistan, has decided that these facilities are detrimental to the warfighting spirit necessary for combat. 

To cut down what McChrystal calls “the recreational attitude,” he has been methodically closing down the concessions that sprout up on American bases—Pizza Hut, Burger King, Baskin-Robbins. “We don’t need 31 flavors to fight a war,” said a McChrystal aide who did not wish to be identified, but observed that when he was based at Camp Victory in Iraq early in the war there, it was possible to shop for 39 varieties of flat-screen TVs.

Apparently, this isn’t a problem in Iraq, where violence and missions have dropped so dramatically that soldiers “complain” of only working a few hours a day, while spending free time in fitness classes and getting their degrees:

Because of new rules that require Iraqi approval for all U.S. missions, and a general decline in violence nationwide, many of the 117,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq say they now have more idle time than at any previous point in the six-year war…

Traditional soldiering such as kicking down doors and searching for roadside bombs has at least partly given way to book clubs, karaoke nights, sports and distance-learning university programs.

One soldier started two book clubs.

One, called Beyond Narnia, reviews essays by C.S. Lewis… Lewis’ religious themes have made the club popular with chaplains here…

The other club, the Dead Poets Society, is reading the works of Dante and Virgil. At one recent meeting, soldiers debated the notion of romantic love, a concept that Gussman argues was first introduced in Virgil’s Aeneid.

The most popular spot on this base…seems to be 6 Pazzi, an Italian restaurant with an outdoor dance floor surrounded by 10-foot-high blast walls. Three nights a week, troops wearing T-shirts and training shorts come to dance salsa, merengue and bachata. Weekly hip-hop and country music nights also are held.

Such entertainment opportunities are welcome distractions for soldiers half way around the world from their families and their home.  Should they maintain their “warrior spirit” within the combat zone?  Sure.  But sometimes even the most battle hardened soldier could benefit from a slice from Pizza Hut.