Blow hard

The Pentagon wants the military to become smoke-free:

Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.

Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

This makes sense on one level. Though smokers have been very valuable to the military, others are very uncomfortable around them. Getting rid of them would do a lot for unit cohesion and military readiness. But what about the rights of the ousted group, especially if they are brave and patriotic enough to be willing to put their lives on the line?

As a smoker himself, though he tries to stay quietly in the closet about it, President Obama has surely already arrived at the correct solution. Let the smokers stay in, but don't let them smoke while on duty or in uniform. Furthermore, they're not allowed to talk about the fact that they smoke, and nobody is allowed to ask them if they do.