Murtha Most Foul

Writing over at Real Clear Politics, Jack Kelly guts, fillets and gently sautés John Murtha's redeployment strategy of moving our forces to the really convenient location of Okinawa, 4,899 miles away as the crow flies.

"My question is, what country would take us?" Mr. Rove asked. "What country would say after the United States cut and run from Iraq, 'Yeah, paint a big target on our back and then you'll cut and run from us?'" "We can go to Okinawa," Rep. Murtha responded. "We can redeploy there almost instantly."

Mr. Russert, mindful of the fact that Okinawa, Japan, is 4,899 miles from Baghdad, offered Mr. Murtha an escape, in case he had misspoken. "But it would be tough to have a timely response from Okinawa," he said. But Rep. Murtha dug himself in deeper. "When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly," he said.

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 10-12 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!"

A maroon indeed. This is what passes for deep strategic thinking from the Democrats these days, apparently. Or at least nobody in the party has the decency to point out what a dunderhead Murtha is. Kelly goes on from there, it's worth taking the time to read it all.

And as always: support Diana Irey and her effort to retire Murtha.