No smoking in war zones: a dumb idea whose time hasn't come

From one who knows:

This is absolutely one of the dumbest things anyone has come up with yet as a means to “improve” our military.

He's referring to the recommendation to ban smoking in a war-zone. From Fox News:

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell says troops already are under enough stress and making enough sacrifices in fighting the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he says Defense Secretary Robert Gates doesn't want to do add to that stress by taking away one of the few outlets they have to relieve it.

But Morrell says Gates will look at the study to see what other things can be done to move toward a goal of a tobacco-free force.

An advocacy group, however, is strongly condemning the push by Pentagon health experts to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end sales of tobacco products on military property. Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United, decried even the discussion of such a ban.

"With all the issues facing our military today and the risks our troops take to protect our freedom, banning smoking should not even be on the radar screen," Wise said in a written statement Wednesday.

Perhaps no one told the bureaucrats that fighting a war is . . . uh . . . hazardous to your health.

More from our correspondent:

Sure, tell a Marine he can’t light up a Marlboro right after a blazing firefight with 20-30 Iraqi insurgents. He’s likely to shoot you. And who will be over there trying to enforce that rule…little goon squads sent out by the Surgeon Generals office?

GOOD luck enforcing it. It is outright impossible and there is no leader, officer or enlisted that will even try to enforce it. The platoon sergeant has a choice of checking his Marines for injuries, making sure they have water and ammo OR…he can police the ranks for Marines smoking and ignoring preparing for the next fight.

One of the principles of leadership is don’t make a rule you can’t enforce and this is absolutely one of those rules. You’d gut the military and maybe that is where they think they’re going with this. It simply can not be done and it is wholly unnecessary, not to mention a gross distraction to the military now. If they really want to improve the military effectiveness they would be FAR better off spending their resources in preventing all the sex, adultery, pornography and outright prostitution going on over there. It’s a much bigger issue than anyone not in uniform will ever know Jill. It’s crazy!

From Newsbusters: the rationale is that servicemen shouldn't be allowed to make their own decisions on this.

If Dr. Nancy wants to preach the dangers of smoking to soldiers, be my guest. But prohibiting a guy who is putting his life on the line for his country from lighting up? Two words for the good doctor: butt out!

From Gateway Pundit: Lib kooks lose.

And what about our Commander in Chief? No one's trying to make it illegal for him to smoke.


I know the picture's a fake, but it's all we've got, since the Perfect One, in a dictator-style move to control his image, won't allow anyone to photograph him with a cigarette.

Comments welcome.

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