In the NY times editorial titled No Rush, Please, on the subject of the nuclear deal, the author says
India’s illicit pursuit of nuclear weapons would effectively be forgiven.
I don’t understand how some countries’ pursuit of nuclear weapons — USA, Russia, UK, China, France — would be considered legitimate and India’s pursuit considered illicit.
One can always draw an arbitrary timeline and define “illicit” as any activity that was started after the timeline — and grandfather the select few who started the same activity before the timeline.
And how is testing an actual nuclear weapon different from testing one in a computer — as the US may be able to do? In both cases the intent is the same.
Here are the ground realities: USA has Pacific Ocean on the West, Canada on the North, Mexico on the South and Atlantic Ocean on the east. The only invasion US needs to worry about is the invasion of immigrants!
India is surrounded by Pakistan, China and Bangladesh — not exactly strong vibrant democracies. India has always been a very responsible country. The US government knew the proliferation activities of AQ Khan and did nothing. It is very scary to read that the blueprint of AQ Khan’s compact nuclear weapon is in electronic form: the consequences of it falling into the wrong hands is unimaginable.
If all the countries decide to destroy their nuclear weapons and not build new ones, the world will definitely be a much safer place. But it is not gonna happen, is it?
Anyway, this deal is about energy. And it makes a lot of sense when oil is @ $140 a barrel and lot more when it goes to $200 a barrel. The only irritant to this deal has been the “Left” parties who were threatening to withdraw support, but they are no longer relevant: there is another party, which has no objection to the nuclear deal, that is willing to join the coalition government. So, the nuclear deal will go through, if not during the last few months of the Bush administration, during the administration of Obama or McCain.
The United States must ensure that any rule the suppliers’ group adopts for selling technology to India is not weaker than anything already in American law. Otherwise, New Delhi will be able to end run Washington and buy technology and fuel from states — like Russia and France — that are even more eager for the business and even less punctilious than this country.
There are lots of American companies who would not want to be left out of deals while Russia or France make them. Pressure from these companies will be more than enough to ensure that the US is as punctilious as Russia or France!