Following up on yesterday morning’s post about the latest failed test of the criminally wasteful missile defense system, I was struck by the boldness of the spin coming from the Pentagon.
Wednesday’s two-part test called for the interceptor to be launched from the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Central Pacific and a target missile to be fired from Kodiak, Alaska. If successful, the so-called kill vehicle would pass close enough to the target rocket to destroy it.
The target missile was fired at 12:45 a.m. EST without event, but the interceptor never left its silo. Twenty-three seconds before it was to launch, a safety sensor detected an unknown problem and shut the system down, said Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
[…]
Lehner disputed the suggestion that the exercise had failed, saying it simply was not completed.
“We weren’t able to complete the test that we had planned,” Lehner said. “I definitely wouldn’t categorize it as a setback of any kind.”
There was no indication Lehner was kidding.
If Lehner was quoted accurately, he was apparently trying to argue that the interceptor missile hadn’t failed in its mission — which was getting close to its target — because it never actually got out of the silo.
It’s like an Olympic track runner saying, “I didn’t lose the race because I couldn’t get off the starting block!”
This spin is worse than a tortured rationalization. Of course the system failed (again). The Pentagon wasn’t able to “complete the test” because the system didn’t do what it was supposed to do. What’s worse, Lehner and his team don’t even know why.
Lehner “definitely wouldn’t categorize it as a setback.” With all due respect, isn’t this the definition of a setback?
This is the Bush administration’s message machine in a nutshell — even obvious, demonstrable failure must be denied, obscured, and spun. Don’t believe your lying eyes; accept the Bush gang’s ridiculous excuses for fiascos.