When we wrote about a new Food and Drug Administration rule that seemed to forbid companies from donating cigars to U.S. soldiers, we hoped it might be a misunderstanding. Now we know the ban is deliberate.

The FDA has clarified its position in a letter responding to a query from California Republican Duncan Hunter. Mr. Hunter, a Marine reservist who has done combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, had noted that a fix could be as simple as an FDA statement that its regulation doesn’t ban these gifts of cigars to troops.

But that’s not how bureaucracies work. In his letter to Mr. Hunter, the FDA’s acting supervisory congressional affairs specialist, Ramesh Menon, confirmed that the agency is banning the long-time practice of many companies to donate free cigars to soldiers. In short, the Marine or soldier on the front lines who might otherwise enjoy the consolation of a free stogie has become a casualty in the FDA’s long war to gain control over tobacco.

This is crazy, but it does have a perverse government logic. Since 2000 when the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had not given the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, the agency has been itching to reassert its authority. In 2009 Congress provided it via the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. President Obama hailed the law for protecting children from “the harmful effects of tobacco,” but he added that the new law “will allow adults to make their own choices.” And in August the FDA imposed its new sweeping rule over all tobacco products.

It would be hard to find a man or woman in uniform who doesn’t know that smoking is risky. Then again so is combat. Meanwhile, the ban on cigar donations takes away the ability of these adults to make their own choices, contrary to President Obama’s explicit promise.