Posted on 11/12/2004 10:25:33 PM PST by Ex-Dem
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes.
"If you want to write something," he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit."
Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side of the world from his home on the farm.
"I just don't understand what all the fuss is about," Miller drawls on Friday as he crouches -- Marlboro firmly in place -- inside an abandoned building with his platoon mates, preparing to fight insurgents holed up in yet another mosque.
"I was just smokin' a cigarette, and someone takes my picture and it all blows up."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Doesn't he know smoking's bad for his health? :^)
Good Grief:thaks=thanks.
I should quit typing and just lurk.
:-D
New caption
70+ dead insurgents, 80% of the city secured-
D*mned if it ain't Miller time!
If he went through the Marine confidence course and a battlefield every now and then, let him coose his own habits for himself.
Is that a Marlboro? ; ) (By the way, I don't think I publicly thanked you for your service in the Navy yesterday. THANK YOU.)
In a scathing four-page letter in June to U.S. Smokeless Tobacco - the Connecticut company that sent Marines products after the invasion of Iraq - two congressmen compared the company's donation to the U.S. tobacco industry's "long and disgraceful history" of giving away products to troops."Your actions recall tobacco companies' distribution of free cigarettes to soldiers during World War II, which caused hundreds of thousands of servicemen to become addicted and die of tobacco-related illnesses," wrote Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Bill Janklow, the former South Dakota representative recently jailed for a traffic-related manslaughter conviction.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco officials defended the gift, saying the intent was to "provide product to current adult consumers who were unable to purchase the product."
Other tobacco manufacturers such as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. say they have abandoned efforts to give away cigarettes to soldiers. "We are not sending cigarettes to troops in Iraq or elsewhere nor are we currently investigating that option," said Carole S. Crosslin, an R.J. Reynolds spokeswoman.
I like that! That is unique!
Lol, well I were being shot at by terrorists, I reckon I'd develop a few bad habits too. Whatever keeps you going...
Well, THAT changes everything for me. < /HEAVY sarcasm>
He'll survive the Marlboros. Don't know about the proposals.
(Please don't eat the Newbie)
LOL! Great tagline!
Welcome to Free Republic!
Ummm which one is more hazardous? (Janklow ran a stop sign at high speed and ran down a guy on a motorcycle who had the right of way.)
Kind of a slam on him since more from California have given their lives in Iraq than any other state.
I'd contribute.
Yeah, I'm beting most of them were from CA's red counties.
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