I should have known the pleasure police would go ape-shit over this photo of one of our hardened Marines enjoying a smoke after a hard day of killing terrorists. James Taranto reports that emails were pouring in to the New York Post and Houston Chronicle for blatantly marketing evil cigarettes to directly to children. (Apparently they are extremely popular in the children's demographic.)

I was shocked to see the large photograph on Nov. 10. A tired, dirty and brave Marine rests after a battle--but with a cigarette dangling from his mouth! Lots of children, particularly boys, play "army" and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette.

The truth is very different from that message. Most of our troops don't smoke. And most importantly, this young man is far more likely to die a horrible death from his tobacco addiction than from his tour of duty in Iraq.

DR. DANIEL MALONEY
The Woodlands

I opened the Chronicle this morning and got slapped in the face by a huge picture of a "battle weary" Marine with a fine looking cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

I respect everyone's rights, but do we really need to encourage our young people to think that this is part of required military gear?

MAYNARD HOVLAND
League City
[...]

How much did Phillip Morris pay for the front cover advertisement? Thank you for continuing to encourage the development of cancer.

Mark Leininger
Manhattan

The Post's cover was horrible and crude. How could you compare our soldiers to the Marlboro Man? We are not "kicking butt" in Iraq. We are in an unjustified war with a people who will never allow democracy to come to their country.

Janna Passuntino
Manhattan

I was shocked to see the front page of your newspaper. Showing a GI smoking and portraying it as being cool is disgusting, to say the least.

First of all, you are promoting smoking, even though it is a health hazard. Secondly, our brave men and women are fighting a tough war in Iraq, and to show them as you did does not do them justice.

Maybe showing a Marine in a tank, helping another GI or drinking water would have had a more positive impact on your readers. Smoking should be outlawed, not endorsed.

Ali Mahdi
North Brunswick, N.J.

I'm reminded of my own blissful childhood. We had both realistic looking toy guns to play with, and candy cigarettes; both of which have since been killed by the pleasure police. I still have the toy guns, which I hope to some day pass on to my own children. I don't have any candy cigarettes, so I guess I'll have to give them the real thing.