Missile Defense, Here at Last

Twenty-one years after Ronald Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative, George W. Bush makes it a reality. The question is why did it take so long?

by Rod D. Martin
March 30, 2004

Last week -- March 23 -- marked the twenty-first anniversary of the announcement of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to defend America from a missile attack.

For everyone who sees missile defense as a moral and strategic imperative, it's been a happy anniversary indeed. The reason? Thanks to President Bush, this is the year we'll finally begin deploying it.

That's great news, but why the wait?

That's precisely what reasonable people were wondering when SDI was unveiled 21 years ago. When Reagan announced it, millions of Americans were stunned by the mind-boggling revelation that our country had been facing a nuclear-armed Soviet Union with no missile defense whatsoever.

With the Soviets still in business, Americans feared the consequences of an attack. And indeed, after President Reagan's speech, an attack of sorts was launched: not by Kremlin leaders, but by Beltway liberals like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Before long, words like "reckless…