By Iason Athanasiadis\/The Christian Science Monitor<\/p>\n
Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan \u2014 The lines outside the burger and pizza joints dotting the \u201cBoardwalk\u201d at Kandahar Air Base remain defiantly long, despite recent reports that it may be shut down.<\/p>\n
The air base in southern Afghanistan is NATO\u2019s largest in the country and the main landing spot of the US troop surge. Its entertainment district \u2013 a square kilometer of fast food franchises, cafes, electronic stories, basketball courts, the occasional live rock concert, and a Thai massage parlor until it was shut down by authorities \u2013 serves some 25,000 military personnel and contractors on the outskirts of Kandahar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019ll bring down morale,\u201d says Sgt. Michael Masterton, a US soldier on leave from one of the frontline bases in Kandahar\u2019s hinterland as he bites into a cheeseburger and fries at the Mamma Mia Pizzeria, an outpost of Italiana and red-and-white-checked tablecloths.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those of us who come down from the FOBs [forward operating bases] it gives us something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre people back home really upset over us being able to have a burger?\u201d asks Col. Don Groves, head of operations at Kandahar Airport, shaking his head in disbelief. \u201cDo they really consider that we have it easy in this war zone?<\/p>\n
Essential goods?<\/strong> The need for war materiel is set to grow in coming months, with some 5,000 additional troops and support staff due to arrive this summer to help carry out a major military campaign in Kandahar Province.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a warzone, not an amusement park,\u201d wrote Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Hall on a NATO blog posting in February.<\/p>\n \u201cSupplying nonessential 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 resupply with ammunition, food and water.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast food joints at risk include Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen, although burgers and such will still be available at military canteens.<\/p>\n Not just burgers <\/strong> With troops from so many countries, the Boardwalk is \u201ca gathering place where you get to meet people from other nationalities,\u201d says Donna Perry, a Canadian contractor who enjoys watching hockey games in the evening as she munches on pizza.<\/p>\n When it comes to food, though, she admits, there\u2019s little cross-cultural experimentation. At the Canadian doughnut franchise where she works, Tim Horton\u2019s, British soldiers overwhelmingly opt for the Toffee Coffee while the French flock to the French Vanilla flavorings, she says.<\/p>\n The Boardwalk offers a taste of local culture, too. Small shops, which will not be closed, sell Afghan memorabilia such as \u201cwar carpets\u201d woven with fighter-jet and Kalashnikov patterns. \u201cBusiness is good. The Boardwalk\u2019s a very nice place,\u201d says Wali Jan, a salesman at the Afghan Toys and Gift Shop.<\/p>\n An Indian employee at the metal container doubling as a Burger King temporarily stops taking orders when told the place might shut down. \u201cI came all the way from India for this job,\u201d he says, disconsolate. \u201cI have no idea what I would do if the order came to shut us down.\u201d<\/p>\n With its scent of greasy fries and burger meat, the Boardwalk may serve another vital purpose: covering up, when the winds are right, the smell of the nearby \u201cPoo Pond\u201d half a mile away where the base\u2019s human waste is disposed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe smell, you become used to it quite quickly,\u201d says one British soldier who did not want to give his name.<\/p>\n
\nThe Boardwalk came under scrutiny last year, when the top US commander in Afghanistan, the famously spartan Gen. Stanley McChrystal, dispatched a team here to investigate if it was essential for maintaining troop morale or if it was hampering shipments of fighting supplies such as Humvees and M-4 rifles.<\/p>\n
\nThe Boardwalk\u2019s nightly patrons and workers, however, see additional benefits of the entertainment center.<\/p>\n