Ironically, it seems doubtful that the tactic will succeed. Despite enormous scientific doubts about the workability of antimissile devices, and extravagant cost, Americans have liked the dream of an invulnerable shield since President Reagan floated it. Governor Bush is likely to score with his call for an all-out system. Nor would the limited plan now being considered by President Clinton obviate the diplomatic and security dangers of any antimissile system. Here again President Clinton embraced an idea whose ramifications have hardly been thought through in order to protect himself from being called soft on drugs.
Drugs are a subject that has paralyzed American political leadership for a generation and more.
The war on drugs fills our prisons without reducing drug use. But only a few politicians have been brave enough to say that the emperor has no clothes. The other day the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, Judith S. Kaye, ordered the courts to begin offering treatment instead of jail time to nonviolent criminals who are addicts. It took a judge to do what every study has shown is more effective and far less expensive. Our sluggish democracy has always depended on courageous political leadership.