Missile Test Fails, Bush Hails "Great Success"

President Bush announced that yesterday's missile defense test failure was a "tremendous success, one which we look forward to repeating."

"My fellow Americans," an upbeat Bush said while speaking before a crowd of handpicked, carefully vetted supporters, "I have nothing but faith and confidence in the capability of the inteceptor," he continued, emphasizing each syllable in "inteceptor," as if he were afraid he might misprounounce it.

Mr. Bush then concluded with "Missile defense is a threat...I mean, it is a vital component of our national security strategy, now and into the future," while the adoring crowd cheered and genuflected in his direction.

OK, so I made that up...the article actually says:

Military technicians say they believe the failure of the $85 million test was caused by a problem with ground support equipment, not with the interceptor missile itself. A preliminary assessment indicated that the fault had occurred in the concrete underground silo, where a variety of sensors perform safety and environmental monitoring.

The interceptor, located at the Ronald Reagan Test Site (italics mine) at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, was supposed to target a mock ballistic missile fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The target missile went off as scheduled at 9:22 p.m. Alaska time Sunday, but the interceptor failed to launch.

I'll give them credit--calling it the Ronald Raygun Test Site is perhaps the most fitting tribute we can pay to the former COIC. An installation that will be obscenely expensive and doesn't work. Hey, that's Ron to a T.

And, given the results--three flat out failures that I'm aware of, and probably more that they haven't announced, I wouldn't be the least surprised if the inteceptor missile itself was nominated for a high level cabinet position in the administration.