An NPT-compliant America

I sure hope that the US Dems jaw jaw jaw in Congress to slow-walk any progress on this India/US nuclear agreement until after Bush/Cheney are gone (if that is still in the cards after the 08 election). While having Indian parties that are opposed even to talking to the IAEA also opposed to the US/India deal isn't a good thing for the world or the US, the deal itself is very bad policy.

A new administration in Washington really needs to think hard about whether the NPT can be preserved as it is. The line between the existing nuclear powers and the have-nots is not sustainable. It is a joke that Pakistan and Israel (and India) have nuclear bombs but we are supposed to think and act as if they didn't.

The NPT allows any nation to develop 'peaceful' uses of atomic energy (such as electric power generation reactors), but the US position seems to be that only those nations the US approves of get to exercise this right - a ridiculous proposition if there ever was one. Iran has taken a principled stand on this right, and the US (and Israel, not even a signatory of the NPT) say they are too dangerous to have NPT rights. Laughable if not so wrong-headed.

One of these days Brazil or some other country that sees the one-sidedness of US policy is going to rebel, and we have no coherent position that could obtain international agreement.

We should note also that the India, China, Pakistan, Russia group is a timebomb waiting for the clock hands to reach midnight. The whole GOP foreign policy, but especially that part relating to nuclear affairs is just fucked up.

I sure hope that the US Dems jaw jaw jaw in Congress to slow-walk any progress on this India/US nuclear agreement until after Bush/Cheney are gone

Too late, Jim. The U.S. Senate approved Bush's India deal last November. The vote 82-12. The House approved 359-68.

Don't look for Democrats to bring sanity on this issue. George Bush isn't the only nut in the U.S. government.

Thx (I think - (grin), Jinchi. I must have been asleep on that India deal approval.

So, rah for the Indiana leftists!