WHEREAS, satellites perform many beneficial services to humanity including hurricane warning, crop forecasting, resource surveys, business communications and scientific exploration; and

WHEREAS, satellites also perform important military communication functions including surveillance of military maneuvers and verification of arms control and arms limitation agreements and treaties; and

WHEREAS, the functions providing military confidence also cause satellites to be prime targets for adversaries in periods of mounting tension; and

WHEREAS, both the United States and the Soviet Union are developing and testing antisatellite (ASAT) weapons that will pose a threat to the other country's vital satellites, a condition that could lead to nuclear war; and

WHEREAS, the President's proposed "Star Wars" program would be astronomically expensive, dangerous and subject to relatively simple counter measures; and

WHEREAS, the deployment of anti-satellite weapons may violate the 1972 ABM Treaty; and

WHEREAS, the Soviets submitted to the United Nations draft treaties calling for a prohibition on the stationing of weapons of any kind in outer space, to which the United States has not responded;

BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1984 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges the President of the United States to declare it shall be the policy of the United States to:

1. Refrain from putting weapons in space;
2. Work toward international treaties to keep space accessible to all nations and free of weapons;
3. Promote cooperation among the nations in the peaceful exploration and use of space; and
4. Negotiate in good faith with the USSR toward a balanced, mutually verifiable ban on deployment of, development of and research on anti-satellite weapons and capabilities.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That this Assembly requests the UUA Washington Office to promote passage of pending bills and resolutions addressing these specific concerns.