Monroe Chat

Good gracious!!!

To quote the 'proposed reason' :
Smoking blamed for billions in Pentagon, VA costs
The study, led by Stuart Bondurant, a professor of medicine and emeritus dean at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said smoking and tobacco-related illnesses cost the Pentagon more than $800 million a year in lost productivity and health care expenses. ..... and gunfire doesn't??

Leave them alone!!!! These are people willing to fight for your Country and FREEDOMS .. why prohibit a right to smoke if they so choose???

Asinine, simply asinine!!


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Gates considering report urging total prohibition for active-duty personnel

A Pentagon-commissioned report urges the Defense Department to ban smoking in the military, even by combat troops in battle zones, a proposal that quickly ignited a controversy among service members.

The study, which was completed late last month by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, recommends closing “the pipeline of new tobacco users entering the military” by prohibiting tobacco use in the service academies and officer-training programs like ROTC and eventually instituting a total ban on all use of tobacco by active-duty personnel.

The Defense Department said military health officials were studying the report and planned to make their recommendations to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The proposal, if accepted by Gates, could take more than a decade to implement, said the report, which the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs requested in 2007.

However long it takes, it will be too soon for some in uniform — “especially guys that are in combat,” said Bobby McCarter, a retired veteran who served 20 years in the Navy.

“They need that cigarette break for stress relief,” McCarter said at a bar popular with the military in Norfolk, Va., home to a large naval base. “I’m totally against that, and I think the Pentagon should leave it alone.”

For complete story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31911204/ns ... alth_care/

Reminds me of the early 80's when the Navy banned beards and "large" moustaches. What a hoot and a half the day THAT went into effect! You couldn't recognize half the crew!
Sorry, but I support the ban-they tried limited bans but they never worked and forr 11 years I was forced to breathe in whatever the smokers expelled so the only fair course is a total ban.

With good conscience I understand your point of view, however, to ban smoking as a whole .... in my opinion.... is restrictive and unnecessary.

Ban smoking in public places, ban smoking in barracks etc., but to assume a ban applicable to an individual right and freedoms - blah!!

.... when a person is willing to sign up and fight (let's face it, today, that is a real possibility of being active in a war zone) to apply such a ban is without warrant.

It is not a question of whether I am opposed to, or support smoking, I personally just don't get beyond applying restrictions to those who are willing to stand up..... JMHO

Well, at 24 quadrillion dollars a pack nobody in the military is going to be able to afford smokes!!!

There are numerous reliable studies that refute the cost claim on savings and actually show long term that smoking saves money on health care by an early death and lack of need for extended medical care!

Didn't we pass out free cigs in WWII? Something had to keep these guys calm while sitting in a foxhole.

But times they are a changing and we all see the negative health effects of smoking so I understand a ban in public places and barracks. I despise cigarette smoke and am thankful Ohio has the new laws but I wouldn't force anyone to stop smoking in private. Lordy it would be nice to retain a few freedoms at home.

But Patey, you must remember this is the US military and the first thing they tell you after you get off the bus - they own you. And they do: they have a different way of life, different customs, different laws and different government. They tell you what to wear, what to eat, when to shower, when you can go to the bathroom, and who you can have sex with so I suppose they can tell you if you can or cannot smoke.

All points made are valid ones and some that I had not considered........ It appears that it is all a moot point as the pentagon released a statement saying that they would not pursue the advised smoking ban.

Again, for me, this was more about taking away a freedom/right, rather than a smoking issue. I fully appreciate those who do not wish to breathe in cigarette smoke and don't blame anyone for feeling that way.

Don't think that this is over by any means, as this is just part of the repetitive conditioning process to prepare everyone for not only this issue but many, many more that are on the horizon, and will become serious issues for open debate and implementation. I am old enough to have seen this pattern repeated over and over.

There are do-gooders who want to control every aspect of our lives for our own good and the betterment of mankind and justified always with a cost aspect, even as money is spent wildly out of control!