Threatcon: F(atboy)

The latest threat to national security: fat kids. Sure, it's embarrassing, but dangerous?

via HotAir In her war on childhood obesity, which culminated today with the president signing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 into law, First Lady Michelle Obama has done and said some questionable things.

But arguably nothing has been as disingenuous as her comments today, which included the observation that

when more than one in four young people are unqualified for military service because of their weight, childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well.

One might well wonder in what way childhood obesity could be construed as a threat to national security. It might be if everyone in the nation were conscripted into military service as a matter of course, but we haven’t had a compulsory draft since 1973.

In addition, there are currently 75.2 million children living in the U.S., judging from the best available data. As of September 30, 2010, there were 1.4 million Americans on active duty in the military with another 850,000 on standby in the seven reserve components. Combined, those numbers come to 2.25 million, which means that discounting the “one in four”—or 18.8 million—American children who are obese leaves a pool of 56.4 million able-bodied future volunteers.