Quite a neat trick - especially when you consider the fact that the treaty bans the construction of a global missile defense. At the White House, thankfully, more clear-eyed thinking prevails. As President Bush noted in his speech, the national security environment that produced the ABM Treaty no longer exists. Neither, for that matter, does the Soviet Union. Gone not only are the times that produced the treaty, and the adversary that made it necessary, but the relationship the treaty addressed.
Reasonable people can disagree over whether it was the right strategy at the time.
The primary threat to the United States doesn't come from a calculated strategic nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Even the Russians seem to recognize this. Yet, despite the fundamentally different dangers now facing the United States, the treaty's defenders are reluctant to let go. This is fantasy. President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld simply recognize the pointlessness of using an old approach to solve new problems.