He Fights On With Dwindling Supply of Smokes

He Fights On With Dwindling Supply of Smokes [Marlboro Man]
LA Times ^ | November 12, 2004 | Patrick J. McDonnell

FALLUJAH, Iraq â?? 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."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com .