Maybe my ears failed me. It’s possible. Too many rock concerts? Too much time in the New
York subway? A hearing test the other day revealed slight, high-frequency hearing loss due to
nerve damage. The doc wasn’t sure why. But I heard what I heard, and the only reason I wonder
about it now is that I still find it hard to believe.
The president was on the tube making amends for not immediately expressing his sorrow over
the death of 15 U.S. soldiers when their helicopter was shot down on Sunday. He began by
offering a generic statement about his heart going out to all the families of U.S. men and women
who’ve died in the war on terror.
Perhaps he sensed that a generic statement was putting his foot in his mouth. He wanted to
show that he really meant what he said. So he pried his foot loose and became specific. “In this
case,” he said, making an impromptu mid-course correction, he grieved for the
men who lost their lives. Who said he couldn’t think on his feet? Hélas, as
the French say, two of the 15 American G.I.’s who died on that helicopter were women. The
president had merely compounded the error. He was generic and misinformed.
