The Unseen Threat

Their mission is an honorable one: to help the Afghan people rebuild their lives after decades of war and to provide security to a society which has lived through years of violent instability.

The German Army contingent in Afghanistan undertakes its task of reconstruction under the constant threat of Taliban attack, criminal activity and some of the fiercest and most diverse weather conditions in Asia. Its theater of operations is often a remote and barren land where forces of nature are sometimes as deadly as the foes that lurk in the mountains and travel the plains.

For all the danger the Bundeswehr troops have faced during their deployment in the north of Afghanistan, none could be more unrelenting than the enemy they are now facing. It is a stealthy opponent which strikes when least expected and one which quickly renders the victim helpless and immobile. German troops could be falling victim to what the soldiers are calling "Bagram Belly" in huge numbers.

Bundeswehr stomachs at risk all over the world

And this new front may not confined only to Afghanistan. This new threat seems to have Bundeswehr troops in its sights wherever they are stationed around the world. A global gastrointestinal insurgency could be taking place with German soldiers as its main target.

At least this could be one reason for the 800 million toilet rolls the Bundeswehr has gone through in the last 12 months.

According to a report in Germany's Spiegel magazine, the 360,000 soldiers and civil workers attached to the armed forces are using an average of ten toilet rolls each a day -- much to the consternation of the army's commanders.

For those in foreign lands, like the Bundeswehr's contingent in Afghanistan, it could be that the local cuisine may have been infiltrated by aggressive microbes.

Insurgent microbes hiding in uncooked food

Forced to survive on army rations of dried instant food, processed cheese and sausage, and bread, some soldiers may have sought sustenance in the spicy, goat-heavy stews of the Hindu Kush. If so, they may have played directly into the enemy's hands.

What's more worrying is the widespread nature of the infiltration and the fact that it appears the Bundeswehr was warned of the threat -- and failed to act.

A 2003 report by the Free University of Berlin into the "optimization of disinfection procedures in food supply facilities of the German Armed Forces" revealed that a bacterial organization known as Bacillus cereus had been identified as the main cause of stomach ailments and diarrhea in troops.

Bacteria ignored by army chiefs

The research, however, failed to show whether B. cereus, a bacterial foodborne pathogen, had any ideological grievance towards Germany and this could well have been why it was dismissed as a real threat.

While the Bundeswehr desperately searches for the real reason behind the inordinately large amount of toilet paper its troops are using, the theory that a stomach bug with a grudge is responsible cannot be ruled out.