Two weeks ago, the Bush administration
made a deal to supply India with civilian nuclear technology, despite
India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
So, you're thinking, "what's the big deal?"
The sentences I have put in bold will answer that question:
A recent U.S.-India nuclear agreement was so hastily concluded the Bush administration is only now beginning to figure out how to implement it in the face of tough questions from the U.S. Congress and nonproliferation experts.
The agreement, announced July 18 after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Bush at the White House, upends decades-old nonproliferation rules and will require changes in U.S. law and international policy.
U.S. officials are optimistic the Republican-controlled Congress will approve steps to fulfill Bush's promise to sell civilian nuclear technology to India.
Such sales are now prohibited under U.S. law because India refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, and is producing nuclear weapons banned by the pact and other agreements.
With the new deal, the United States in effect accepts India as a nuclear-weapon state.
So, not only has the Bush administration made a move that could clearly affect international security (nothing new there), but it has "no clear plan" regarding how it will actually implement the deal with India (act first, think later).
There has been some discussion regarding whether or not the NPT is dead, and the Bush administration's failure to nurture it may be one reason. In fact, the last UN meeting on the NPT ended in a stalemate:
But strong disagreements [at the meeting] over priorities prevented substantive efforts to address the gaps between the world's nuclear haves and have-nots.
The United States tried to keep the focus on alleged nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea instead of its pledges to whittle down its own arsenal.
As usual, the Bush administration is giving the finger to a major treaty, plus demonstrating its hypocrisy, especially with regard to its attitude to Iran's nuclear program; Iran is preparing to restart its nuclear program, and you can bet the U.S. will be threatening them. Defiance breeds defiance, and global security is compromised as a result.
Update [2005-8-2 0:20:2 by Plutonium Page]: Important news. Please check out this diary, about Iran being TEN YEARS away from having nukes. Not 6 months, not one year. Ten.