He Fights On With Dwindling Supply of Smokes [Marlboro Man]

LA Times ^ | November 12, 2004 | Patrick J. McDonnell

[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."

[Jay Howard Smith]

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.

Got started on Camels when they came in my K-Rats 54 years ago. I quit 6 months ago. Just cant afford them anymore..!

[OwnershipSociety]

CA has the most people, it would be odd if that wasn't true anyway.

It's "per capita" that matters.

[Joe Hadenuf]

CA has the most people, it would be odd if that wasn't true anyway.

Yes it would. LOL.....

[Wiz]

Give the terrorists in Falluja some too, but with a fake one with high toxic burning their lungs to ashes.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[libertyman]

I know--I am an ex-smoker, having been a tobacco addict for 21 years. Now please don't assume that I'm a liberal for saying this, 'cuz I despise the political Left: but the tobacco companies LOVE this. The War Hero is a smoker! Look at how masculine a cigarette will make you become!

But if this guy should ever smoke a JOINT, well.....all hell will break loose. He'd be a criminal, not a hero! I read on the Drudge Report & the Media Awareness Project that the Israeli Defense Forces are giving marijuana to their soldiers to help them cope with PTSD. Here in "the land of the uhhhh, free" pot smokers are fired from their jobs, have their kids taken away from them by The State, are imprisoned, & no tellin what else. Now how hypocritical is THAT????

[OwnershipSociety]

Looks to me like AZ and OR lead in the "Iraq deaths per capita" category.

http://icasualties.org/oif/ByState.aspx

[HungarianGypsy]

I remember someone whining in a letter to the editor the other day about this picture promoting smoking.

[ConservativeStatement]

The photo on the front page of the NY Post defines the old adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words."

[GeronL]

well, I am not the one to ask, I have never smoked anything.

[dandelion]

Props indeed to California - that's the home of Camp Pendleton, and they have paid a heavy price indeed.

A hug from Texas for the great state of California...

[Joe Hadenuf]

You seem to be splitting hairs here. My statement that more Californians have died fighting in Iraq than any other state stands. You can jump around with your per capita all you care to. Deal with it.

[uncleshag]

"Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!"

[Joe Hadenuf]

A hug from Texas for the great state of California...

Thanks, but American's from all states have laid down their lives there.

I just pointed out that those from Cal, (a blue state) were by no means, an exception.

[processing please hold]

My daughter adopted a soldier in Iraq. Between she and I we sent care packages to him The number one thing on his list was smokes. When she first came in contact with him he said he was down to smoking 10 cigarettes a day because there wasn't any. We sent him three cartons of smokes and enough food and snacks and junk food, that the post office made us send it in two packages.

He's back from Iraq now and safe. He told my daughter that when soldiers get goodies packages they share with their buddies. So if you send a package, more than one soldier will enjoy it.

[MonaMars]

"I'll just sit on my roof and smoke a cigarette."

Lol. That's how I made it through high school. Now, I'm thinking of mailing this guy a big box of Nicorette.

[Petronski]

My folks never let me up on the roof, but I did my share of roof sitting in college. It has a certain simple appeal.

[lainde]

Be still my heart..What a sexy guy! Wish he'd get the People cover instead of the usual wimps they have for world's sexiest man. (Like a real man, he'd probably decline the silly, "sissy" photo shoot. He's got serious work to do).

[processing please hold]

If you send a package to a soldier, "Make sure the soldier knows how many cigaretts you are sending in a seperate letter" Some people who check the packages have sticky fingers. That is a problem.

My daughter would put a list of goodies in the package, and in a personal letter to him. That way he could check her list against what he recieved.

[OwnershipSociety]

Deal with what? The fact that CA does not have the highest death rate in Iraq? What is this with you? Some kind of a contest?