[Leanan]

...to eat chicken and rice with urine?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5479865/

[OilBurner]

Coming to a McDonalds "restaurant" near you very soon!

But will anyone tell the difference?

[Guest]

more de-vitalized crud for our legions.

That and the "one pattern fits all Camo" thats comming out, and people wonder why some troops don't feel the need to re-enlist.

[Mower]

This is not a joking matter.

[azreal60]

Mower, have you ever heard of laugh in the face of danger? Peoples response to a dangerous situation is often to laugh at it and deal with it the same way the serious would. That does not make them less prepared, it simply makes them smart enough to realize that causing yourself undue stress over this is not going to help you. If anything it will only hurt your chances.

[Cynic]

And for the U.S. military in war zones everything comes flavoured with yummy depleted uranium. That'll put hairs on your chest. Eyeballs probably too.

[Falconoffury]

Mower, no matter how bad things get, even if you have to drink your own urine to survive, you should never lose your sense of humor. It will help protect you from depression.

[Eta Carinae]

How long would you starve before you resort to cannibalism?

[Aaron]

Urine is sterile BTW

unhg...

[buster]

Guys, I believe Mower was, himself, joking.

Smilie=Clue.

[Leanan]

Er...that's not a smilie.

[buster]

Whatever, the 'alt text' on the icon says "evil or very mad." Clue.

[gg3]

First of all, in-extremis scenarios like this aren't particularly realistic or useful.

Second, soldiers are trained to be able to eat some pretty nasty stuff if they have to: one of the drills for Air Force ROTC involves being stuck in the woods for three days with nothing more than a pocket knife, a canteen of water, and something for starting a fire. A friend of mine who went through this assures me that mouse does not taste like chicken.

Third, the hypothetical "P-rations" (ha) are intended for use in extreme combat conditions, not as ordinary food. Agreed, the Bush Administration has been p*ssing on our troops of late, and treating them like sh*t, etc., but this is not that.

Fourth, DU isn't causing all those mystery-illnesses. I have heard from reliable sources that one of the culprits for the neuro symptoms is DEET, insect repellent, applied in very high concentrations and large repeated doses. The DU is about as toxic as lead, which is certainly toxic to be sure, but a couple hundred years of lead and vaporized lead on battlefields has not caused this kind of symptomology.

Fifth, envisioning unrealistic in-extremis scenarios does tend to obscure the less extreme, but no less potentially deadly, scenarios that are far more likely. Such as the impact of escalating energy and related food prices on poor families, and more particularly their offspring, and thereby overall social stability.

And last of all, humor does help: by creating partial disassociation, i.e. the emotional basis for "getting perspective" on a problem, and thereby being able to address it more realistically.