By It is hard to believe that this guy is a US Congressman when he doesn’t even understand why US Marines are on Okinawa:
Okinawans seeking to oust the U.S. Marines from their midst have a prominent new advocate in Washington: Veteran Democratic Congressman Barney Frank.
The aptly named Mr. Frank, one of the most quotable politicians from either of America’s big two political parties, has been hitting the talk show circuit over the past week with memorable one-liners on the matter. “Most people, I think, that I talk to, thought the Marines left Okinawa when John Wayne died,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show on July 8, referring to the long-gone Hollywood star’s World War II movies. “It’s unclear to me what they’re doing there.”
He went on: “I don’t want to see China given a free hand over there vis-a-vis Taiwan, but 15,000 Marines aren’t going to land on the Chinese mainland and confront millions of Chinese soldiers. You need some air power and sea power.”
The liberal Massachusetts Democrat was given the microphone in recent days after penning a widely-cited odd-couple op-ed with libertarian Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul on July 6 calling for sharp cuts in the Pentagon budget, particularly on spending abroad. While the piece itself doesn’t mention Okinawa, Mr. Frank cites Japan’s southern island repeatedly in interviews as a prime exhibit of what he considers wasteful World War II legacy spending that has become irrelevant in the 21st century. [Japan Real Time via Teri Weaver]
First of all John Wayne did not die on Okinawa he died on Iwo Jima in his most famous World War II movie Sands of Iwo Jima.
Secondly the US Marines on Okinawa are not there to conduct a land invasion of China against millions of Chinese soldiers as Frank claims. As evident by the yearly Marine training deployment to Korea, one of their key missions is to deploy on short notice to the Korean peninsula in case of a contingency operation there. Plus Frank claims that sea and air power are needed on Okinawa is quite ironic when the Marines provide amphibious landing capability and the Marine base at Futenma that is being relocated is an airbase that provides, you guessed it air power! If you read further in the article he claims the US gets no jobs from having Marines on Okinawa. Is this guy so clueless that he doesn’t realize the amount of US citizens working as contractors and government civilians on Okinawa? Frank is either an idiot or being intentionally misleading, either way it doesn’t reflect favorably on him.
How anyone can take seriously anything from someone largely responsible for creating the US housing crisis is beyond me?
She hasn’t seen...
4:52 am on July 12th, 2010 1
Barry Frank is also one of the most openly gay Congressmen on the Hill… not that there is anything wrong with that…
7:26 am on July 12th, 2010 2
It's so nice of Frank to let Michael Steele off the hook for his Afghanistan comments. But that it gets so little traction just highlights how low this region is on the radar.
7:30 am on July 12th, 2010 3
Al-Qaeda don't need to worry about attacking US soil as long as we have guys like him in the Capital Hill… lol
7:43 am on July 12th, 2010 4
@ #3:
Don't be hyperbolic. It's just how American politics is done.
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/29286?in=49:48&a…
7:54 am on July 12th, 2010 5
It just confounds me people continue to vote for this guy
10:19 am on July 12th, 2010 6
Who would like to advocate for Mr. Frank to remove the c#ck from his mouth*? It makes it difficult to understand what he's saying.
*NTTAWWT
11:18 am on July 12th, 2010 7
I guess he is unaware of the Navy at Yokosuka and Sasebo and the Air Force at both Kadena Air Base on Okinawa and at Yokota as well. What a libtard!
12:03 pm on July 12th, 2010 8
"Frank is either an idiot or being intentionally misleading."
He is both.
7:29 pm on July 12th, 2010 9
What has hit more balls than Maria Sharapova's racket?
Barney Frank's chin!
10:34 pm on July 12th, 2010 10
Q: How is Barny Frank like BP's oil well?
A: They are surrounded by incompetence… they can't be shut up easily… and they both emit too much gas when big, sweaty men drill their holes.
11:23 pm on July 12th, 2010 11
He's just being a smart ass. You of all people should know that.
8:30 pm on July 14th, 2010 12
[...] they themselves don’t know what the mission of the Futenma garrison is. Although GI Korea helpfully points out evidence that the Marines are to deploy on short-notice contingency operations to the Korean [...]
10:20 pm on July 17th, 2010 13
John Wayne died at UCLA Medical Center…(just being a smart-ass).
The link you give to the Boston Globe article stating that Frank is responsible, in large part, for pushing banks to give loans to non-creditworthy applicants, is a bit of a lark.
Most loans that were given out by institutions were not regulated by the CRA.
Not that Rep. Frank is one of my favorite pols….
1:27 am on October 4th, 2010 14
Maria Sharapova's legs are truly awesome and she also got a pretty face;~:
2:45 am on October 4th, 2010 15
Asia doesn't need the US. US can go home now, thank you very much.