The left has for years been trying to find ways to hamper military recruitment, from getting ROTC banned from universities to blowing up recruitment centers. They have been notoriously ineffective. However, the Department of Defense itself may do what the fringe left was never able to do to the military with this crackbrained idea:
USA Today reports that the Pentagon’s health experts are pushing for a ban on smoking in every branch of the service. They cite the high cost of providing care for smoking-related ailments.
I quit smoking in 1971, but when I was in basic training in 1966 the one supreme pleasure of the day was a smoke break. Even having to smoke non-filtered Pall Malls to facilitate field stripping the butt did not take away from the sublime bliss of those few minutes with just your ciggy and no sergeant yelling at you. Do away with that and you’ll see recruitment plummet.
