There are a lot of countries that are buying missiles. So far, none of them can reach the United States. And unless they get a lot of help from countries more sophisticated than North Korea, meaning Russia, where Iran is getting help now, I don't think they will be able to get here within five years at least, and possibly ten. So what we have is a hypothetical defense system that President Bush hasn't specified against a hypothetical threat that hasn't materialized. All we know for sure about it is that it is going to cost a lot of money.
Some people say there are twenty developing nations with ballistic missile development programs.
I don't doubt that number and it could even be higher. Most of those missiles, like ninety-eight percent of them, don't go very far. They can still be extremely lethal. So everybody agrees to theater missile defenses. And that is part of the equation and always has been.