Their campaign is starting now. It’s time to let your senators know how you feel about selling nuclear technology to India. It’s far from a done deal; we can stop this!
State Dept. Official Pushes Nuclear Deal
Signaling a tough campaign, a top Bush administration official urged Congress on Wednesday to approve a landmark plan to share nuclear technology with India.
“India can be trusted,” Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
Critics, including former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., are skeptical of the agreement reached March 2 by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.
It requires Congress to exempt India from U.S. laws that restrict trade with countries, such as India, that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections.
Among concerns raised by Nunn, who played a leading role on military issues in Congress, were that the agreement would promote a regional arms race with China and Pakistan and make it more difficult for the United States to win support for sanctions against such countries as Iran and North Korea. {snip}
Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test-fired a cruise missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and hit targets within a 310-mile range, the army said.
Boy Wonder is getting in on the act:
President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to approve a landmark plan to share nuclear technology with India – a deal that could be a tough sell to lawmakers. {snip}
Legislation to implement the plan was introduced last week. Burns said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would testify in support of the measure.
Also, two assistant secretaries of state, Richard Boucher and Stephen Rademaker, were sent to Vienna to promote the plan with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an assembly of 35 nations that export nuclear technology.
Make no mistake what kind of world Bush’s non-non-nuclear proliferation policies are creating:
North Korea suggested Tuesday it had the ability to launch a pre-emptive attack on the United States, according to the North’s official news agency. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the North had built atomic weapons to counter the U.S. nuclear threat.
“As we declared, our strong revolutionary might put in place all measures to counter possible U.S. pre-emptive strike,” the spokesman said, according to the Korean Central News Agency. “Pre-emptive strike is not the monopoly of the United States.” {snip}
The accord [with India] was reached even though New Delhi has not signed the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty and condemned the United States for giving India “preferential” treatment.
“We have built nuclear weapons for no other purpose than to counter U.S. nuclear threats,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. link
What Now? The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is Dying:
It is absurd to believe that we can have an arrangement whereby some states acquire and continue to develop these weapons while others are punished with war for doing the same thing on a miniscule scale. This logic of the NPT in practice is to endorse double standards of the worst possible sort. It would have been treated as absurd if such an approach had been taken with respect to the treaties renouncing the right to develop or possess chemical and biological weapons. Even though some states had huge stockpiles of these weapons, the treaties were based on the equality of obligations binding on all states. Why should nuclear weapons be treated differently?
The Non Proliferation Treaty did not die all at once; Although for years the US has been in violation of the treaty, the hope had remained that it would become the basis for a real agreement.
Now Bush has finally finished it off. Between a new round of unilateral nuclear escalation–the ABMs and the “bunker-buster” bombs–and the utterly capricious untrustworthyness of the American Government, no one can take the NPT seriously anymore–though several countries still pretend to.
This is truly a dangerous thing, but it is the US that is doing it, and some 45% of Americans voted for it (in 2004). Don’t waste breath trying to blame what comes of this on others (though I am sure we will.)
The point that is more relevant here is: What is the US/India agreement about?
(I would be happy if the US Congress demanded and got answer to this question.)
Through the whole of the 20th century the US was an adversary of India, and though hostilities were generally downplayed this was plainly represented by the way the US backed, supported, and sold weapons to Pakistan in preference to India (which in response sought and got a good deal of help from the Soviet Union). The US also enabled Pakistan’s A-bomb project.
More recently, barely a year ago, Indian ministers were publicly describing US policy as “ridiculous” and would not even bother to discuss it.
Now suddenly, this is all changed. India is suddenly our ally, and getting nuclear technology to boot! Supposedly. In exchange for what?
Could it be that our ally Pakistan is about to switch sides–that our sometime puppet government there is about to be overthrown?
Or does a “crusade” against Islam require the US switch sides and add Pakistan to its list of enemies?
Let us be clear: India has cherished its nuclear programs and does not lack for skill and expertise. So what really is being offered that India needs?
How does what say it? There is no doubt that the deal is dirty–how could it be otherwise? But more: It is bogus, phony. Someone is being conned. Probably several someones.
Even with its robot soldiers ready to roll off the production lines, staffing the occupation of a country as large and populous as Iran will be a challenge.
India is one of the few nations capable of providing expendable gunmen to the crusade, which they have steadfastly refused to do, and quite wisely, since the country has a sizeable Muslim population that may not react positively to such a move.
However, the prospect of having more nukes than Occupied Pakistan may have been too delicious a prospect to pass up.
But I don’t gainsay you.
Certainly India can hold its own against Pakistan, but could they be tempted?
As you imply, it would be stupid.
I wonder who is duping whom.
the potential increase in quantity over Pakistan. This practically makes India one of the nuke club kids — no longer a pariah who sneakily developed these weapons, but acceptance conferred by Uncle Sam. A matter of great pride for many Indians.
This agreement allows the Indians to keep their military reactors shut to inspections and, with the fast-breeder reactor they are building with the French, will allow them to develop as many new weapons as they please.
I couldn’t agree more; this administration has been working hard to scuttle the NPT & it looks like they’ve now succedded. Though there are a few tattered shreds of it that can be gathered in one hand with which to flog Iran.
The US nuclear industry is gearing up to reconstitute its near moribund growth. GE & Westinghouse are no doubt delighted by this deal. India will prove to be a wonderful buyer, and bringing them into the American fold is thought to be a hedge against an alliance with China. The Shanghai Cooperation Group is making the US quite nervous.
Pakistan, as dtf & others often point out, is one bullet away from becoming an Islamic gov’t & has much closer ties to China as well. Just as much of the 20th C can be understood as a struggle between the US & the Soviets, the 21st is shaping up to be one of world-wide struggle between the US & China.