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The United States is at risk. America has no defense against terrorist missiles that can now be launched at American cities. And this threat to America is rapidly escalating.

Anti-American dictators like Muammar Khadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani pay and equip networks of terrorists who have struck repeatedly at innocent Americans around the world. These terrorist groups and their state sponsors would like nothing better than the power to strike not just at scores of Americans, but millions.

The most effective way for terrorist groups and terrorist nations to strike at Americans is to target them at home. But until recently, Americans have been mostly safe on our own territory from long-range terrorist attacks by the likes of Libya, Iraq, North Korea, and Iran. Today, these and other dangerous groups are acquiring the means of launching nuclear weapons on long-range missiles. This deadly combination will soon enable as many as two dozen nations controlled by terrorist regimes to threaten the mass destruction of Kansas City, Dallas, or Chicago--something that not long ago only the former Soviet Union could do.

The U.S. and other Western intelligence sources have amply documented the fact that some of the most violent, unstable, and anti-American fanatics in the world are now eagerly attempting to develop and acquire weapons of mass destruction--chemical, biological, and nuclear. What is even more disturbing is that these same terrorist states are rapidly developing the missile technology to deliver them over long distances. For instance, we now know that the Taepo Dong II missile, currently under development by Communist North Korea, may be able to reach Alaska and Hawaii during the administration of the next U.S. president. We also know that both Iran and Syria are developing long-range missiles, reportedly based on Communist China's designs and consultation. Worse yet, Iranian missiles may be able to reach American cities within months if, as occasionally reported, Iran's radical regime simply buys them now.

The tragic fact of our late-20th century life is that nuclear weapons, missile technology, and even missiles themselves can now be purchased on the international arms market. Dictators can acquire an instant capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction simply by buying SS-19 and SS-25 ICBMs from Russia. Indeed, Russia is marketing them vigorously (ostensibly as launch vehicles for satellites, since they are identical to the Russian "Rokot" and "START" space rockets). U.S. intelligence may not even be able to provide timely warning of the transfer of these missiles to a hostile nation or terrorist group.

Nor is this new nuclear threat limited to ground-based missiles. Russia is also selling submarines from which ballistic missiles can be fired.

Even as this grim new reality takes shape, two nations--the People's Republic of China and Russia--already possess long-range nuclear missiles that can wipe out 265 million Americans in minutes. Presently, our only defense against this offensive threat is the continued forbearance of these potentially hostile governments. This chilling reality was recently illustrated by the thinly veiled Communist Chinese threat, documented by former Clinton Administration Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas Freeman, to destroy Los Angeles during the Taiwan missile crisis in March 1996. Even when such threats are made casually, they underscore the potential for nuclear blackmail in international relations. Similarly, Russia's recent lurch to the left may well put Communist hard liners back in control. And the risk of unauthorized or accidental missile launch from the former Soviet Union may now be greater than it was at the height of the Cold War.

Yet America currently has no way of stopping even one such missile. More accurately, while we have the tools to defend our population from such an attack, politicians have prevented us from actually putting them in place.

Public opinion polls show that most Americans do not realize that America's armed services have no way of protecting our cities from even a single missile. A January 1995 nationwide poll conducted by Luntz Research indicated that 73% of Americans are ignorant of this fact Almost certainly, this is because it is simply unthinkable that despite spending $250 billion per year on "defense," we are naked and defenseless against third-rate nations and rogue terrorists. Citizens trust that the first responsibility of their national government is "to provide for the common defense," and they accordingly assume that there must be an effective defense against missile attack. But there is not.

How was this dangerous situation allowed to occur? In 1972, when the United States signed the ABM Treaty with the Soviet Union, the USSR was the only nation on earth that threatened us with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The purpose of the treaty was to express both nations' acknowledgment that a nuclear war was not winnable. By obviating the risk of a first strike coupled with an effective defense against retaliation, the ABM Treaty permitted a standoff between two rational, if hostile, opponents. This arrangement, known as "mutual assured destruction," was perhaps justifiable in the real world of a quarter century ago. Today, however, the reality is dramatically different. Where once there was a single major nuclear foe, there may soon be dozens. And where once the foe was (it was hoped) rational, no such calculation can safely be made about the often insane terrorist threats facing America. Indeed, today the Soviet Union itself is no more. Yet the ABM Treaty still exists. Its only current purpose is to prevent an American self-defense against nuclear missiles launched by foes we may not even have detected.

While acknowledging that these threats exist and even touting non-proliferation as its foreign policy, the Clinton Administration remains wedded to the ABM Treaty, seemingly for its own sake. Worse, they have slashed the relatively meager funds for protecting American territory. President Clinton wiped out over 80 percent of the funding levels recommended by the Bush Administration, even though these represented less than 1% of the defense budget. And when the new Republican-led Congress restored several critical missile defense programs, Clinton deliberately withheld the funding, causing further needless delays.

Unlike Bill Clinton, Republicans believe it is high time that our armed services are permitted to defend American territory as the Constitution demands. We reject the President's impotent "placebo policy."

American citizens should be protected from an already real and growing threat by an effective and affordable anti-missile defense. Current technology already permits this. A solid defense against terrorist-state missiles can be deployed for a tiny fraction of the existing defense budget. It is already provided for within the Republican balanced budget resolution. House Republicans have introduced the Defend America Act to see to it that such a National Missile Defense is deployed within seven years. We intend to see the job through.

Since the ABM Treaty does not permit the United States to protect our people and our territory, Republicans recognize that it no longer serves our national security interests. Either the treaty's restrictions on legitimate U.S. defense efforts should be lifted, or America should exercise our right to withdraw under Article XV. The American people have every right to expect protection against terrorist missile threats. We literally may not be able to live without it. Yet most Americans believe they are already defended, and are justifiably angry when they learn otherwise. This total vulnerability to ballistic missile attack should end--and it should end now.