1981 RESOLUTIONS
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| No. 25 |
ON "MISSILE
EXPERIMENTAL" (MX) |
|
| While mindful of the need
for adequate national defense, it is clear that considerable defense
spending is wasteful. A case in point is the proposed $50 billion
to develop the "Missile Experimental" or MX. The elimination of
this project would more than restore the $36.9 billion cut recently
made by Congress in social and environmental services. |
||
| The Union of Concerned
Scientists in its newsletter discusses the effect on the environment of
this project. Among other things it comments on the ecological
fragility of the 26,000 desert acres in the states of Nevada and Utah,
the site of the MX, stating that the project would seriously affect
several endangered plant and wildlife species in the area, as well as
sacred Indian lands. The article states, "The potential
nationwide cost of the MX is immense in the inflation it creates, in
the jobs it does not generate, and in the loss of the wealth of
resources to of the programs critical to our economic, social, and
physical well being, and to our security as a nation". This is an
awesome indictment. |
||
| Senator William Proxmire
(D-Wisc) warns; This project "would gut our environmental laws, usurp
local and state control over land, curtail local legal rights, and
railroad the MX down the throats of residents in the affected areas." |
||
| The governors of both Utah
and Nevada have protested the building of the MX. The Mormon
Church has taken a position in opposition and the people of Nevada have
voted against it. |
||
| If President Reagan's
campaign promises to "restore states rights" has any relevance, the
elimination of the wasteful military spending on the MX is his
opportunity to live up to his promise. Also its elimination would
go far toward "getting government off our backs" and at the same time
prevent the destruction of fragile desert areas and its plants and
wildlife species. |
||
|
|
The Federation of
Western Outdoor
Clubs takes the position that the MX project is militarily wasteful and
environmentally destructive, and calls on President Reagan and his
administration to cancel the project. |
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