Brian T. Kennedy

About the author: Brian T. Kennedy is a vice president of the Claremont Institute, a public policy research foundation.

If a nation or terrorist group decided to attack the United States with missiles, America would be unable to defend itself and would suffer helplessly as millions were killed. Moreover, other nations, such as Russia or China, could use the threat of a missile attack to force the United States into abandoning its allies and strategic interests. The United States has the technological capabilities to develop a ballistic missile defense system. America's leaders should make missile defense a leading national priority.

On September 11 [2001], our nation's enemies attacked us using hijacked airliners. Next time, the vehicles of death and destruction might well be ballistic missiles armed with nuclear, chemical, or biological...