Last night, during the official visit of the Prime Minster of Israel with the President of the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran test launched a Shahab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel, U.S. troops in Iraq, and other countries in the Middle East region. This auspiciously timed event also coincides with recent news of North Korea’s preparation to launch a Taepo Dong – 2 long-range ballistic missile, most likely over the country of Japan.

We as a nation have to confront the reality of a proliferating arms world and deploy solutions to defend our nation, our troops and our allies. As our leaders in the House of Representatives and the United State Senate debate the merits of the amount of support for missile defense for 2007, there is, without doubt, Public education is paramount, and with this mission in mind, we at MDAA endorse the dissemination and advocacy of missile defense through our country’s most prestigious newspaper – The New York Times. This past Sunday, The New York Times wrote an independent article on the need for deployed missile defense both here in the United States and in Europe to its 1.6 million readers.Our polling in New York, Europe and the United States shows that we at MDAA clearly understand the overwhelming support citizens around the world voice for the deployment and need for missile defense.

Over the last week MDAA pursued its mission by traveling to the states of Arizona, Florida and New York. Beginning in Sedona with the “Champion Event” in the heart of the “New Age” community located in the middle of Arizona. We concluded in the metropolis of New York City where MDAA made a presentation alongside Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, Congressman Tom Feeney of Florida and Senator George Allen of Virginia to an influential and powerful group of opinion and economic leaders of New York City.

The facts remain the same:

• The increasing number of ballistic missiles in the hands of those hostile to the United States continues unabated.

• Close to 50% of our population are unaware of missile defense.

• Our country does not yet have a fully deployed, twenty – four hour operational missile defense system in place to defend against all ballistic missiles from any range.