Being an Australian living in the US it's disappointing to see our Prime Minister John Howard cow-towing to the US as if they were some vassal to a Warlord. It gives me hope and strength though when Howard and his conservative government grow a spine and stand on 30 year old principles, even under pressure from the US.
Case in point. As Bush leaves India having signed a nuclear deal with its Prime Minister that will give the Indian's classified and sensitive nuclear technology in return for allowing members of the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect some of its civilian nuclear sites at regular intervals, he has criticized Howard's government for refusing to sell uranium to them.
So why wont they? It's quite simple really, India isn't a signatory of the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and until it is Australia will not deal with it. What makes this more interesting is the fact that Bush is also criticizing Howard for selling uranium to the Chinese, who have signed the Treaty.
In 1989
Richard Barlow produced a damning report for Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense that Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons and through Abdul Qadeer Khan was selling its technology to Iran and North Korea. The US was on the verge of clinching a deal involving the sale of F-16's to Islamabad, and in order to ensure the deal was completed, Barlow's report was effectively ignored.
Years before, under the Reagan administration, the government had repeatedly looked the other way when it came to Pakistan's nuclear development, and in some cases had facilitated the movement of highly specialized technology from within the US to the sub-continent. In return, Pakistan allowed the US to use its facilities to assist in a clandestine war against the Soviets who had recently invaded Afghanistan.
Now, 20 years on we are seeing the same old Iran/Iraq situation. First we support one side, in this case Pakistan, then we support the other, India. Iran/Iraq was disconcerting but it was a situation that involved only conventional weaponry. Today, the Bush administration has upped the ante, and the deals involve nuclear technology.
A limited nuclear exchange in the sub-continent would kill upwards of 12 million people, and while many are saying that the deal Bush has just signed is going to make the situation over there a lot safer, sorry, I don't buy it. The US needs to come up with a consistent policy on this issue rather than openly criticizing countries that have one, and follow it to the letter of the law.
India may be the world's largest democracy and Pakistan a country run by a dictator who took power in a military coup and supports terrorism, but as we continue with the War on Terror, Pakistan and its nuclear proliferation is being given a pass in return for its continued assistance and now India is being given the keys to the nuclear cabinet. Sorry but I have to go with Australia here. I would be more willing to trust the Chinese than Pakistan or India and that's notwithstanding the fact that even in 1990, Richard Kerr called the sub-continent a more serious concern than the Cuban Missile Crisis.