Star Wars is back

Star Wars is back. Though the once-flaming arguments for and against an antimissile shield faded with the Cold War, a new version of the defense debate is back.

Russia and China are not considered the enemies they were a decade ago, but they are suspected suppliers of missile-building goods. Thus this nation has to figure out how to neutralize any threat that could arise if nations such as North Korea or Iraq build and aim missiles at the United States.

At this point, the Clinton administration's schedule for designing and testing an antimissile system, then deciding whether to deploy it, looks sensible. The 1996 White House agreement with Congress was to test a national defense system by 2000 and, if the threat warrants, deploy by 2003.

Though an antimissile system is pricey and not guaranteed to stop incoming rockets, deployment of a limited system, at least, could make more sense against smaller arsenals than it did against the Soviet Union's.

-- The Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio