Smoking in Iraq: Malbourough Man

One of the most iconic photos of the war in Iran features a marine, face blackened, blood running down from his ear, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, staring blankly at the sunset at the end of a battle.

The picture sparked both admiration and anger. Admiration came from the warmongers seeking to glorfy the Iraq war, such as CBS anchor man Dan Miller:

“For me, this one’s personal. This is a warrior with his eyes on the far horizon, scanning for danger. See it. Study it. Absorb it. Think about it. Then take a deep breath of pride. And if your eyes don’t dampen, you’re a better man or woman than I.”

Interestingly enough, the solder himself, though initially supporting the war later turned against it, saying:

“What have we gained as a country? What have we actually accomplished other than the loss of some damn fine people?

Anti-smoking campaigners attacked the photo for the postive image they saw it giving smoking. One man wrote:

“The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette.”

Others in turn were angry that the main focus of this anti-smoking tirade was the fact that the soldier was smoking. As Naomi Klein pointed out:

“…letter writers from across the nation are united in their outrage – not that the steely-eyed, smoking soldier makes mass killing look cool, but that the laudable act of mass killing makes the grave crime of smoking look cool.”

The soldier himself, used by the various factions, gained little from the resulting fame. Suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, he became unsafe with a weapon, attacked a sailor when he though a whistling sound was an approaching missile and was discharged from the army.

Related posts:

1. Smoking more dangerous than Iraq
2. Smoking Obama

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