Update on Missile Defense

In the March Navigator, James S. Robbins commented on the moral necessity of a national missile defense system. Gallup Poll data that ran alongside the article indicated that 44 percent of the American people think that a missile defense system should be built.

However, a January 2001 ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 80 percent of those surveyed support building a defense system that is designed to protect the United States from incoming missiles, whereas 18 percent oppose such a system. Of the 80 percent in favor of missile defense, 57 percent would support it if cost estimates ran anywhere from $60 billion to $100 billion, whereas 37 percent would oppose it with those estimates; 62 percent would support it if scientists raised doubts about, whether it could ever completely protect the United States from incoming missiles whereas 33 percent would oppose it; 47 percent would support it even if it broke an existing treaty with Russia, whereas 47 percent would oppose it; and 57 percent would support it if a national missile defense system might create a new arms race as other countries tried to build better missiles, 39 percent would oppose it under those conditions

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