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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????

Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004

Photograph of eastern Kentucky Marine hits front pages

Associated Press

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - The mother of a Marine from eastern Kentucky now fighting in Iraq said she was thrilled to see her son's photograph on the front pages of newspapers this week.

Maxie Webber of Robinson Creek in Pike County said the close-up of Lance Cpl. Blake Miller, his face covered with dirt and a cigarette hanging from his lips, let her know that her son was OK.

Miller, 20, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold.

Fallujah has been the site of some of the most severe battles with the Iraqi insurgency, and this week U.S. troops began a fierce battle for control of the city.

The photo, taken by Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco, has appeared in newspapers across the nation. Webber said she first saw it when CBS News anchor Dan Rather showed it to viewers on Wednesday. Photo editor Alan Hagman confirmed Friday that the photo was of Miller.

"I just sat here and I thought, that's my son," Webber said. "I couldn't believe it. To me, it's just God's way because Blake is a Christian. It's just like God saying, 'I'm letting you know he's OK.'"

Webber said she stays home as much as possible in case her son calls.

"I don't want to miss his call because you never know if that call will be the last one," she said.

Webber said she also bought an answering machine for her phone just in case Miller, the oldest of her three sons, calls while she's out. She has one message on the answering machine from Aug. 1.

"And when I get lonely, and it's been a few days, I play that tape," Webber said.

Webber said her son's decision to join the Marines has changed the way she thinks about America.

"Until my son went into the Marines, I never really realized what that flag stood for - but now I do," she said.