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| Iraq |
| U.S. Troops Order Comfort, With Fries on the Side |
| 2003-10-22 |
| Soldiers Looking for a Taste of Home Make for a Booming Business at Iraq’s First Burger King By Theola Labbé Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 19, 2003 EFL and Fair Use BAGHDAD -- Welcome to Iraq, home of the Whopper. Deep inside Baghdad International Airport, past a vehicle search, a body search and four checkpoints, soldiers are lined up for burgers and fries. They have come by plane from Mosul, 220 miles north, for onion rings. They have picked up Chicken Royale sandwiches while picking up buddies flying back from a two-week home leave. They have begged and borrowed Humvees, making up any excuse for a trip to the airport and a reminder of what the pink mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise oozing from a fresh Whopper tastes like. To paraphrase Robert Duvall’s character from Apocalypse Now, "It "It tastes like home, yes it does," said Staff Sgt. Mark Williams, 50, from Pittsburgh, after tearing off a chunk of his Whopper with cheese. Lucky stiff - this is making me hungry! The former Saddam International Airport now houses Iraq’s first Burger King. Part creature comfort, part therapy for homesick troops, its sales have reached the top 10 among all Burger King franchises on Earth in the five months since it opened. The shiny metal broiler spits out 5,000 patties a day. -- More -- © 2003 The Washington Post Company I’ll take a Double Bacon Whopper with Cheese, large fries, and a medium Coke! Huh? |
| Posted by:.com |
| #4 I wondered if anyone would notice. First thing I did after getting to Thailand was to go to BK and order exactly that meal. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-22 8:24:55 PM |
| #3 Gonna have to be Turkey Bacon if they want to sell to anyone besides our guys and the 300 Iraqi Christians. |
| Posted by: OminousWhatever 2003-10-22 5:54:34 PM |
| #2 But if ya gotta do the guard duty gig anyway, well then, it's a bonus, right??!!?!! "its sales have reached the top 10 among all Burger King franchises on Earth" This indicates that walking through fire on top of any other onerous duties hasn't deterred customers. ;-) Mebbe, if they had the cajones, putting a Starbucks, BK, McD, KFC, Wendy's, Taco Bell, and a Jack in the Box in a heavy underground bunker with razor wire, concrete anti-vehicle gauntlet, and the world's greatest ventilation system (to get rid of the deep fat fryer output) in downtown Baghdad would prolly set new records for sales. I picture having a dummy version at ground level as an idjit-magnet. If we could figure out how to get the people in & out without them getting shot by the Ba'athists who used to have the Baba Habas franchise, we'd boost our retirement funds by about 1000000x. ;^) |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-22 2:35:26 PM |
| #1 .com, they don't deliver - you'll have to go there. You're also required to spend 24 hours on guard duty around the perimeter before being 'privileged' to place an order. Makes for a damned expensive cheeseburger! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-10-22 2:07:30 PM |