In February 1998, almost seven years after a Scud missile killed 29 U.S. soldiers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, the United States was poised to go to war once again against Iraq but without a missile defense that could insure such tragedies did not recur. The Iraqi missile that fell on Dharan in 1991 killed and wounded more U.S. soldiers than any other episode during the Persian Gulf War. And yet, despite the demonstration of the need for effective missile defenses, U.S.