President Bush has decided to go out, basically by himself, on a limb to push for a new strategic missile defense system, similar to the one proposed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Many of the world leaders and leaders within our own government oppose such a measure and have ridiculed President Bush for his proposal.

Those in other countries, such as China and Russia, have accused the President of wanting the United States to dominate the world.

They cannot look beyond their own greed and selfishness to see that what our President wants to do is to protect our country and our allies from terrorist attacks.

President Bush's proposed defense system is designed to be just that, a defense system only.

In his proposal, he explains that the system will

not be designed to be used offensively.

He has even agreed to reduce the number of nuclear missals in the United States' arsenal once this system is in place.

American critics of the President's proposal state that we do not have the technology to put such a defense system in place, without worries that it will malfunction.

Everything man builds is subject to malfunction. We learned that from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. Nothing is foolproof. But, such a defense system would help ensure a safer world for us.

And as for the technology, if we can build a weapons system that can place a missile in the front door of a bunker without hesitation, we should not be far from being able to produce the defense system proposed by President Bush.

It should be realized that those across the world who emphatically oppose the President's proposal are some of those who have silently supported terrorist action in the past. It is time that we woke up and smelled the coffee. If our country doesn't do what it can to protect itself, we will become more and more vulnerable to terrorism as time goes by.