From The Village Voice
By Sydney H. Schanberg

Transfixed as I’ve become by the new empire spreading out of Washington, I offer some empirical news bits that have recently drawn my attention. President Bush, who for now has resisted accepting the “emperor” title and its crown and scepter, gave a speech last week to a select group of admirers in Lexington, Kentucky. It was one of those unilateral orations about his Iraq war and related subjects, such as the patriotic, secret spying on Americans that he authorized shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attack. Of course, it’s no longer secret, because the treasonous New York Times outed the covert operation on December 16. But the president has acted swiftly, ordering a secret investigation into that heinous act. More reporters may be going to jail. The president says no mercy will be shown to those who comfort the enemy.

Anyway, I’m watching his speech on CNN and suddenly the president utters one of those giggly little fibs he likes to tease America with. He says of the soldiers he has sent into battle: “When you put these kids in harm’s way, we owe them the best equipment, the best training, and a strategy for victory.”

It was the “equipment” part that crossed my eyes. Omigod, I thought, his staff has failed him again and made him look like a fool. I guess they didn’t tell him about the repeated news stories since the war’s start, nearly three years ago, that showed soldiers were being killed and maimed because of outdated body armor and vehicle armor. The latest undisputed report was on page one of the Times on January 7, just four days before his speech. The president says he doesn’t lie, so it must have been another staff bungle.

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