Re-inserting from Okinawa in southern Japan, would require flying across the heart of China, then across Iran. to circumnavigate hostile territory, Okinawa becomes further from Baghdad than New Jersey.
----To say nothing of re-occupying Japan with 100,000 troops "for the good of the Middle East."
Yet the Press, in their Unanimous Suck-Up Mode (USUM) were so-o-o-o impressed.