No-nukes fallout

[OhioChick]

Article published Wednesday, December 27, 2006

AT FIRST glance, President Bush's signature on legislation establishing nuclear cooperation between the United States and India might seem a wise move in U.S. policy terms.

India is certainly an important ally in the troubled South Asia region. Commercial and financial relations between the two countries continue to proceed apace, even though American workers wince at the growth in outsourcing. India's economy continues to grow by leaps and bounds and is expected to reach 8 percent this year.

An Indian-American organization of 30,000 members, the U.S.-India Political Action Committee, lobbied heavily for passage of the measure, emulating the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee in the pressure it has put on legislators and the administration.

The problem is that Mr. Bush's move toward India, agreed upon initially during his visit there in March, basically cuts the ground from under any pretense that the United States is serious about limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This point is particularly relevant given the major fuss the Bush Administration is making in negotiations regarding the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea - very sensitive matters indeed.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061227/OPINION02/612270309


<snip> Once a principled position on a subject such as nuclear nonproliferation begins to disintegrate, it becomes increasingly difficult to consider it a policy anymore. U.S. support of nuclear nonproliferation was a bad one to give up, particularly for Indian money and votes.