Posted on 06/19/2006 11:54:47 AM PDT by george76
Ian's got the video of Murtha on Meet The Press.
Transcript here.
After criticizing Karl Rove's "fat backside," Murtha put forth his fat-headed Okinawa plan:
MR. RUSSERT: You say redeploy. Again, Mr. Rove challenges that comment.
Let’s listen and give you again a chance to respond to the White House.
(Videotape, Monday):
MR. ROVE: Congressman Murtha said, “Let’s redeploy them immediately to another country in the Middle East. Let’s get out of Iraq and go to another country.”
My question is, what country would take us? What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, what country in the Middle East would say,
“Yeah. Paint a big target on our back and then you’ll cut and run on us.” What country would say that? What country would accept our troops?
MR. RUSSERT: What’s your response?
REP. MURTHA... We can go to Okinawa.
MR. RUSSERT: But it’d be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa.
REP. MURTHA: Well, it—you know, they—when I say Okinawa, I, I’m saying troops in Okinawa. When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly...
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
He didn't get the memo...
"The man is a lunatic."
There's no fool like an old fool. Murtha is 100% proof.
We hope that DIANA IREY uses this !
Last week... Nasty Pelosi gave almost the exact, same non-answer. The number of “you know(s)” popping up in their retorts is starting to get scary.
If allowed to regain power... these cowards will kill us all!
Distance from Okinawa to Baghdad 4899 Miles
Cruising speed F-16 577 mph
Elapsed time-Best Case 8.5 hours
Yup, that's a brilliant idea! What kind of morons elect mental midgets like this?
Yes, you would have to refuel an F-16 approximately 6 times to fly a Baghdad/Okinawa mission.
Murtha wants our fighters to fly to Baghdad from Okinawa? OK, an F-16 has a combat radius of 340 miles on a hi-lo-hi mission with six 1,000 lb bombs (according to Wikipedia). It's 4,899 miles as the crow flies from Okinawa to Baghdad. Do the math, Murtha.
Murtha's not just a backstabber, he's an idiot.
the dems have just plain lost thier minds they know that every day that passes things get better in iraq and thier doom and gloom predictions look less and less realistic, thier only hope is to demand that we get out know then they can claim forever that Bush was wrong
but with each day that passes the dems look more and more like defeatists
John al-Murtha is truly now Bozo the Clown. If this Okinawa crap does not remove his unwarranted reputation as a military sage then nothing will.....
(1) Okinawa is not only 4500 miles away "as the crow flies" but there's the inconvenient fact that the vastness of China falls in the middle of that - so in reality planes have to go completely around the Asian continent, probably close to 8000 miles (since it's rather unlikely that even friendlier India would want US military flights overhead).
(2) The US is in the midst of an agreed upon multi-year plan to slash the number of Marines based in Okinawa in half, since it has been a huge political problem with Japan's government to deal with local opposition to our bases. The idea that we could suddenly decide ("unilaterally" it appears) to trash that agreement and pour 100,000 or more troops in there, plus entire air wings, simply does not meet the "laugh test."
(3) Okinawa is not just "over the horizon" for rapid deployment purposes, it is almost 1/3 of the way around the globe (when you take account of the circuitous route that planes and ships would have to follow). The idea that a major redeployment of forces from Iraq to Okinawa could occur at all, or that it could continue to support security on the ground in Iraq in any major way, is simply laughable.
That's not to say that we can't always deploy some limited "rapid response" forces from anywhere in the world to Iraq, but the idea of using Okinawa bases to address the strategic and operational issues in Iraq is what is just plain silly.
Murtha deserves to be flayed for his Okinawa proposal, for it shows that he has no understanding of the issues involved and no plausible ideas about what to do next.
Plus all the support of tankers, AWACs...
Both ways !
Another great Democrat idea.../s
I'm floored by Murtha's response, however: "Wax on, wax off."
As someone pointed out on one of the sites linked by Michelle, Okinawa to Iraq is 5000 miles over mostly unfriendly territory (eg, China), while Maine to Iraq is 5500 miles over mostly friendly territory (except for a corner of Syria). Tomorrow, Murtha's "better idea" will be to redeploy the troops to Maine; Maine can use the boost to its economy.
And the direct path from Okinawa to Iraq is over mainland China and Iran. I doubt that they'll mind us flying over.
If I were russert, my response to murtha's idiotic statement would have been, "Huh?"
I held off on tanker support figuring some other Freeper would come up with that one, like Raynearhood did. 6 refills per plane. The logistical support alone would probably take a couple of days to coordinate. Hopefully the muzzies will pitch a tent and stay for a while while we get ready to respond.
Plus they would have to fly over Iran !
Both ways ...
When he said our troops should redeploy to Okinawa, I figured he was having a momentary senior lapse, and the wrong name came out. I was willing to assume he meant somewhere else.
Now that it's clear he MEANT Okinawa, I can only marvel at the left's ability to take seriously the comments of a man who is so obviously clueless about the war we are fighting.
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