Reports that our sovereign air space is being repeatedly penetrated, and that it has evidently been going on unnoticed for some time, are profoundly unsettling. Unfortunately, they highlight a serious national vulnerability heretofore unknown to most Americans.

That vulnerability arises from the fact that, after President Nixon signed the U.S.-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972, America basically gave up on most active and even passive defenses of our country. The theory was that having agreed to forswear effective anti-missile systems, it made little sense to maintain comprehensive air defenses, extensive protection for our leadership or any real civil defense for our population.

Instead, we embraced a notion called Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD. Our perfect vulnerability backed by a nuclear deterrent was said to be the formula for security.

MAD is, well, mad. Clearly, we need to defend America once again.

This is Frank Gaffney.