I just read a story on CNN
about how obesity rates are limiting the number of Americans of
enlistment age eligible to join the armed services.
"Overall only 1 in 4 of our young adults between the
ages of 17 and 24 is eligible for military service," says Rear ADM Jamie
Barnett (retired). Obesity is one of the main reasons, he says. Others are
failure to complete high school and having a criminal record.
CNN reports, “The problem is
potentially so serious commanders of all ranks who spearheaded the study
describe it as a potential threat to national security.”
Military leaders believe it
could become a “national security crisis”. Really? This is the statistic
than makes our leaders stand up and take notice?? This is the threat to our
nation’s security?
How about 1 in 88 kids born in 2000 have autism? Who knows how many children born this year will be diagnosed…how
about the staggering 1 in 6 American
children diagnosed with a developmental disability—this according to a Centers
for Disease Control study published in 2011 in Pediatrics that collected data over an 11 year period from 1997 to
2008.
And what’s more, Gary
Goldstein, president and CEO of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore
believes these numbers are underestimated—as if they aren’t bad enough as it
is.
I don’t see where any
admirals or generals are concerned about the implications to future fighting
forces because of the staggering numbers of autism cases and other neurological
conditions. Where is the so-called gray beard panel to study the implications
of 1 in 6 American children with neurological conditions that will likely make
them ineligible for military service?
I don’t see any concern by
legislators about U.S. economic security when the tidal wave of pediatric
autism cases become adults with autism—who will need expensive social programs
to provide for their care. Earmarks totaling a billion or so dollars each year
will pale in comparison to the fiscal implications of a generation drawing on
social programs, unable to become taxpayers themselves—much less fight in our
nation’s wars.
Obesity is what gets our
nation’s leaders to pay attention. Our children’s neurological health—eh, not
so much. When will we pay as much attention to the neurological disorders
plaguing our children that will affect this nation's military readiness and fiscal viability?
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