US commander in Afghanistan bans burger and pizza bars at Kandahar base

If an army marches on its stomach, General Stanley McChrystal would prefer that it wasn't full of burgers and pizzas.

In an edict that will appal the units garrisoned at Kandahar airbase, but no doubt raise a smile from soldiers living off rations in forward operating bases, the famously sober US commanding general in Afghanistan has called for an end to the junk food culture that has taken root at the base.

With queues for Whoppers outside Burger King and troops ordering takeaways from Pizza Hut while others enjoy the occasional evening of line dancing, the square of shops and restaurants at the airfield could almost pass for smalltown America.

But the fact that these fast-food joints are just a few miles down the road from Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban and the focus of critical Nato operations this summer, has not impressed McChrystal.

Anxious that his men focus on the job at hand, McChrystal has ordered the closure of most of the all-American food outlets that have appeared over the years at Kandahar airfield.

As one of his top deputies put it in a written announcement: "This is a war zone – not an amusement park."

The closure of Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and Military Car Sales, where soldiers can buy pickup trucks to be delivered their home address, will all help the alliance "accommodate the troop increase and get refocused on the mission at hand", Sergeant Major Michael Hall said.

Their departure will remove the essential elements that made the "boardwalk"area of Kandahar airfield one of the oddest in Afghanistan. Just a few hundred metres from an airstrip that sends so many fighter jets, unmanned drones and helicopters out on missions around Kandahar and Helmand that it is the world's busiest, soldiers can shop for perfumes, cigars and high end electronics as well as eat junk food.

Inside a restaurant such as TGI Friday's, the only reminder that this is the most surreal outpost of the US casual dining giant is when the camouflage-clad customers dive under tables at the sound of a rocket attack alarm – an occasional hazard in Kandahar. TGI's is not yet on the McChrystal hit list, but a warning that some contracts will not be renewed suggests it may not last long.

The news is likely to delight US troops who live off rations in tiny outposts where occasional showers are the closest they get to luxury. Such frontline soldiers routinely disparage their colleagues who spend their tours among the creature comforts of the large bases.

But some US military personnel in recent months have told the Guardian that McChrystal's puritanical streak, which has also seen a ban on activities such as salsa classes, is an unnecessary added burden on soldiers on lengthy 12-month tours.

The mega-bases of Kandahar and Bagram will be the most affected by the new policy, and it is not clear whether Camp Bastion, the UK's giant facility in the desert of Helmand will lose the sea container that houses a tiny Pizza Hut.

It is the only such franchise on a base which McChrystal would otherwise find admirably austere – British troops' shopping opportunities are restricted to the Hobnobs, toiletries and Nuts magazines sold at the Naafi store, an outlet dwarfed by the giant US equivalents.