GREAT POWERS

Bush’s Very Dangerous Deal

The U.S.-India pact has been hailed as a triumph. It was just the opposite.

Published Dec 31, 2008

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In 1974, India used a small reactor bought from Canada for civilian research to make plutonium. Its scientists secretly shaped the metal into a bomb and exploded it in what India called "a peaceful nuclear test."

President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger knew they had a problem. They swiftly created a new global structure to make it difficult for any other nation to turn civilian technology into nuclear weapons. And their plan worked. If countries wanted to buy reactors and fuel, they had to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), promising to never build a bomb and to open their nuclear sites to inspection. Some cheated, like North Korea and Iran, but they were caught and branded as outlaws. The vast majority of the 183 signatories without nuclear weapons kept their word.

This fall, President George W. Bush blew up this nuclear levee. The U.S.-India nuclear deal exempts India from the NPT's restrictions and permits it to keep its 50 to 120 nuclear bombs and build more. And the United States will start selling India sensitive nuclear technology.

Having inked the pact, Washington then browbeat other nuclear supplier nations into going along.

And on Oct. 2, the U.S. Congress gave its approval to the deal—thus clearing the last major obstacle.

It is hard to overstate what a mistake this was. India has now been granted all the privileges of a recognized nuclear-weapons state but with none of the responsibilities. The other two nuclear-armed nations outside the treaty, Pakistan and Israel, are sure to demand equal treatment; other nations, like Japan, may reconsider their nuclear options. Georgetown University School of Foreign Service dean Robert Gallucci says the deal will "open the door to the true proliferation of nuclear weapons in the years ahead." The dan-ger in South Asia seems especially high.

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Posted By: ahmdm @ 03/21/2009 11:35:10 AM

you find it discriminatory? you stupid slumdog. stop dreaming about pakistan being made a part of India, blah blah...

Infact the solution to all the problems would be division of India. India has problems with all its neighbours, incl. pakistan china bangladesh and srilanka... So it would be better to divide this slumdog land among these countries...
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Posted By: Daphne Kenward @ 03/19/2009 1:42:04 PM

It's time for people to start the safe VOTE, with sfate policies, and accountability to the electorate. The farce we have today called DEMOCRACY is a nonsense. And these leaders we have today are the most dangerious in worlds history. Bush and Brown being the most dangerious since Adilph Hitler. Racking up huge debts, irrsponsible wars, lies to start wars, and stupid policies, new policies that does more harm than good. And turning the world into a DICTATORSHIP.

Now Gordon Brown thinks he is a world leader, and he can't lead the country he was never elected to govern. What is necessary is International laws being applied, not for some but all, we are indanger of creating a Neo Fascist State in America and Britain. An open door policy for Muslims to come to Britain so they can be arrested and accused of being Terrorist, and create hatred and discrimination.

Nuclear bombs should be dismantled because who ever invented these Missiles must have been mad, to dream of killing all life on earth is the desire of a mad man, and George Bush was close to being that idiot.
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Posted By: jbz7879 @ 03/19/2009 7:32:43 AM

this was a terrible mistake and truly its an unholy pact between two wolves pretending to be in sheeps garb -india has 60 percent people below poverty line and usa is a bankrupt state ,
congratulations on two evil predators who prey on their small neighbours on shaking hands ,
it virtually shows that the whole conspiracy of 9/11 was to just intervene in iraq for oil and to strip pak of its nukes -

well sam and slumdogs can rest assured people are not so stupid that they do not comprehend their silly chess games as if others cannot play better ,
remember the russians are best at it ,lolz

have you noticed how quickly pakistans kiyani was in beijing signing a nuke treaty with china .

now indo americans can lick each other all over from head to toe -for eternity ,
they deserve each other .
2 fascist states
one with gujrat genocide and demolition of mosques behind it
and the other with concentration camps like gitmo bay and abu garib on its pathetic human rights record with celebrated crimes like the bombing of dresden and hiroshima on record .
and of course they had engineered the creation of bangladesh too -only it backfired in their faces -now they are in for another big surprise and north korea is not listening to them neither is iran and i would like to see what and how are they going to stop them .
the time for neutered bull terriers with rabies has gone with the wind