Jack Kelly On John Murtha

Jack Kelly, one of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's two or three openly conservative writers, takes a look at the latest pronouncements of wisdom from Okinawa Jack:

Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, imagines himself to be the scourge of the hawks in the Bush administration. Many journalists do, too, because they keep inviting him to appear on talk shows.

Ah yes -- talk shows, Murtha's biggest source of support thus far in the campaign. Or they were, until he mentioned Okinawa. Says Jack Kelly:

Mr. Murtha has been recommending redeployment to Okinawa ever since his rebirth as a dove last year, so what he said on "Meet the Press" was no slip of the tongue.

Let us be clear about the Murtha "strategy." It is insane. It would be easier to defend Germany from Chicago; Alaska from Miami, or Hawaii from Pittsburgh than to defend Iraq from Okinawa.

It would take 10 to 12 hours -- and six refuelings -- for F-16s to fly from Kadena AFB on Okinawa to Baghdad (assuming China and India would grant overflight rights, a dubious assumption). Mr. Murtha may regard this as "very quickly," but the Air Force does not.

As Bugs Bunny would say: "What a maroon!"

If I resided in the PA 12th district, I would prefer Bugs Bunny as a representative over John Murtha. The rabbit might be aware of something like this:

Another howler is Mr. Murtha's assumption that U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq would be welcome in Okinawa. For decades Okinawans have been seeking a reduction in the U.S. military presence, both because they covet the land on which U.S. military bases sit, and because of a long history of pacifism. The U.S. recently agreed to withdraw 7,000 Marines from Okinawa.

I thought the left wanted to get out of places where we aren't wanted. The problem, however, is not where we are wanted, but where we are needed. Who needs us more? The Okinawans, or the Iraqis?

Read the whole thing, as we say. And remember to keep asking the right questions, and give the right answers, as Jack Kelly does:

Mr. Murtha sounds less like a Marine colonel these days, and more like a male Cindy Sheehan. Has he become senile? Or was he always this stupid?

In either case, voters in his district should take a close look at Diana Irey, the Republican who hopes to put an end to the embarrassment to Pennsylvania that Jack Murtha has become.