Are they serious?

The Pentagon's last hope of flight-testing critical new elements of an antimissile system, before activating the system this autumn, appeared to vanish yesterday with the disclosure that the next flight test has been postponed until late this year, well past the November election.

The Air Force general in charge of the program said the setback will not affect plans to begin operating the system in the next month or two. But the delay leaves the Pentagon pressing ahead with a system that will not have been flight-tested in nearly two years -- and never with the actual interceptor that will be deployed.

Yes, that's right. They are going to begin operating an antimissile system that has not been flight-tested in years, which has failed multiple previous tests, and only passed ones that have been widely criticized as rigged, and which they freely admit incorporates a number of critical hardware and software changes made since the last flight test.

Democratic lawmakers and other critics of the system accused the administration yesterday of playing politics with the test schedule, seeking to avoid the risk of an embarrassing flop during the presidential campaign.

Now where could they have gotten that idea?

Standing on a platform flanked by two Chinooks, Bush said foes of the missile system are "living in the past. We're living in the future. We're going to do what's necessary to protect this country. We say to those tyrants who believe they can blackmail America and the free world: You fire; we're going to shoot it down."

As you remember, Osama Bin Laden launched four ballistic missles at the United States on September 11, 2001. (And the whole "Bring it on!" thing is working so well in Iraq.)