National missile defense (NMD)

President Bush has declared his desire for early deployment of a US National Missile Defense or NMD system to protect the nation against an attack of one or a dozen ICBMs carrying nuclear or, possibly, other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). He has the support of the Secretary of Defense, sizeable groups in Congress and the public who feel strongly that the US should have a means to provide protection against that threat, and the US has the technology to create that means. The author presents an overview of the perceived need for deploying such an NMD system which would entail the scrapping of existing ABM treaties.