00                       HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 10                                                                     
01 Requesting the United States Congress to support the speedy deployment of a national                                    
02 missile defense system.                                                                                                 
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed with the Union of                                     
05 Soviet Socialist Republics, a nation that no longer exists; and                                                         
06       WHEREAS an increasing number of nations, including North Korea, either currently                                
07 possess the capability to launch missile attacks against the United States or are working to                            
08 obtain that capability; and                                                                                             
09       WHEREAS due in part to advances in technology, the possibility that a missile                                   
10 bearing a weapon of mass destruction will be used against United States forces or interests is                          
11 higher today than it was during most of the Cold War; and                                                               
12       WHEREAS terrorist groups, not just nations, may have the means to buy                                           
13 intercontinental ballistic missiles; and                                                                                
14       WHEREAS the United States still does not have a defense against missile attack; and                             
15       WHEREAS the Cold War policy of mutual assured destruction that is assumed in                                    
16 arms control treaties is not sufficient to deter terrorist missile attacks; and                                         
01       WHEREAS defending against a missile attack is the government's moral obligation;                                
02       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests that the United States                                
03 Congress support and vote for all efforts to build and deploy a national missile defense system                         
04 as rapidly as possible.                                                                                                 
05       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-                               
06 President of the United States and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Ted Stevens,                             
07 President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate and member of the Alaska delegation in Congress;                               
08 the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and to the                               
09 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senator, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                               
10 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.