The bad news is that the United States today has no deployed
capability to stop even a single intercontinental range
(strategic) ballistic missile from reaching its territory.
Similarly, nothing is in place that could intercept a shorter-
range ballistic missile launched from a submarine or surface
platform off the nation's coasts. Seven years after Desert
Storm, the United States has scarcely improved the protection it
can afford forward deployed personnel and allies against theater
ballistic missiles. Unfortunately, our potential adversaries
have not stood still. If the United States today were to try to
mobilize a new Gulf War-style coalition, how many takers would
there be if London, Paris, or Rome—to say nothing of Riyadh—were
at direct risk of missile-delivered weapons of mass destruction
and the United States could offer no assurance of protection?
For that matter, if Saddam Hussein had a missile capable of
reaching the United States, would Congress, which narrowly
approved going to war the last time, b