OK, this is absurd. The U-T‘s editorial board today tells us to recognize two “hard facts” in this debate about the airport authority’s ballot proposal.
The first was that Lindbergh Field is cramping San Diego’s style. Fine.
It’s the second one that is complete nonsense:
… the ballot proposal does not call for any scaling back whatsoever of the Marine presence at Miramar. As a community, San Diego should continue to support the military’s robust operations at Miramar.
The editorial board is right, the ballot proposal doesn’t call for that. But nobody – not the airport authority, not its most ardent supporters – seriously contends that the Marine Corps could continue to do the same “robust operations” it does at Miramar now if a major commercial airport is built there. The debate has moved on to whether the Marines will be planning on their own to ditch operations that involve tactical, fixed-wing aircraft.
The U-T knows that.