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Iraq-Jordan
Marlboro Man Puts Up With Press Weenies
2004-11-13
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."
Posted by:.com

#6  Nice relief from the ordeal of Fallujah. Would be nicer if the military's PR flacks could plant or create more stories like this to knock the MSM off-balance and displace their gloom and doom spin.
Posted by: lex   2004-11-13 7:14:56 PM  

#5  The real danger Corporal Miller is going to face will be when he gets back home to Kentucky and young women start lauching themselves at him like RPG's.
Posted by: Matt   2004-11-13 2:30:51 PM  

#4  I can remember doing that myself.

And then, one day, there weren't full packs of smokes, only those 4-cigarette "courtesy packs" they handed out on airlines at the time.

And then there were none.

The virtuous, like the poor, will always be with us...
Posted by: Fred   2004-11-13 11:51:56 AM  

#3  Ol Dad tells of being on operations in WWII (aka The Big One) where the only thing taken from rations were the smokes and the candy, it being a different time, them in charge cranked out a new ration of nothing but smokes and candy.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-11-13 10:19:43 AM  

#2  The Brass should promote this soldier on valor alone; he is an inspiration in the war, just as Jessica Lynch was! If he has had the opportunity at enemy kills, bravo the more! He reminds me of the Kurt Russell character in the movie "Soldier"!
Posted by: smn   2004-11-13 9:56:34 AM  

#1  But, but, it's bad for his health! How can the military allow this when smoking is prohibited in all righteously enlightened workplaces? There are children in Fallujah, being exposed to the evil of second-hand smoke! Oh, the humanity! Atrocity alert! Worse than Abu Ghraib! Free Mumia, free dope, free lunch! Bush can't talk, worst president in history. Hey, don't bogart that joint, man.
(channeling asshat)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-11-13 5:35:55 AM  

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