A recent study by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on the sale and use of all tobacco products in the military.  The study pushes for all products to be removed from military bases over a 5 - 10 year period.

Why?  It cost the Veterans Affairs Department $5 billion to treat smoking-related emphysema in 2008, and in 2006, the Military Health System spent about $564 million on tobacco-related costs (pretty close to the almost $600 million in tobacco sales in military stores).

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are outraged - well, the ones that smoke are.

Many service men and women are claiming that it is up to them what they put in their bodies.  They also charge that the military is taking away their rights, and one of their only stress-release outlets.

It appears that they didn't read the contract in their nicotine haze.

Military members gave up many rights as soon as they put pen to paper - especially the right to do as they please to their bodies (which became government property upon signing).  The military reserves the right to restrict their members' activities (remember basic training).

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) under Title 10, US Code, specifically sets forth the rights of service members.  'Privileges' and 'pleasures' like cigarettes, snuff and chewing tobacco are not covered as 'rights.'

Something a lot of us are forgetting about a proposed ban is that taxpayers would save nearly $7 billion a year on health care costs for service members.  That's an excellent sacrifice for a few packs of smokes.

In the modern military, fitness and health are at the forefront.  Tobacco compromises members' health, and by doing that, it compromises deployment readiness.

I understand what it's like to be deployed.  I know that there are few outlets for deployed members, but in this case (and in the best interest of it's members), the Department of Defense would be in the right.

It may not seem fair, but 'fairness' is a luxury that military members signed away when they joined.