American Double Standards

Times of India

The elites inside the Beltway must have danced a jig when North Korea's test of a medium range ballistic missle failed. They have long agonized over the "Hermit Kingdom" getting its hands on a deliverable nuclear weapon that could be used to blackmail an ally like Japan or even to commit national suicide by indirectly attacking the United States in Taiwan or Okinawa. So too, our pols and pundits have generated media loads of angst over Iran's yet to be proven weapons program. North Korea was pilloried world-wide for testing its missile system recently; the US administration lead the chorus of disapprobation.

The case of India, however, illustrates two points: the porosity of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, and American nuclear double standards for nations deemed capitalist enough to be friendly*. India has not signed the agreement to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and there is much domestic opposition to signing it in the future. Consequently while faced with a hostile Pakistan, India developed nuclear weapons as it also developed civilian nuclear power with US help. Today it made a quantum leap in nuclear arms with the successful launch of Agni V (named after the Hindu god of fire), a long-range mobile missile designed to carry a 1.5 ton nuclear warhead over 5,000 kms. With that range it can reach Bejing and 70% of Europe. It will take a few years before the system enters India's arsenal or be launched from one of its two nuclear submarines. Nevertheless, Indians see the weapon as a useful countermeasure to China's military build up in south Asia and along the disputed Himalayan border with India. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of Tibet. India and China recently broke off border talks. The US response to the launch has been very muted, but the fact is India is truly in the 'nuclear club' without a seat on the UN Security Council or signing up to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Yet the United States is not pressing India to give up its weapons of mass destruction.

*India has steadfastly supported US Afghanistan policies that border on the deranged. India is the only nation in the region that supports the US demand to leave Special Forces in Afghanistan until 2024. No wonder the Taliban quit the so-called peace talks because the US has never been serious about a negotiated settlement. The Saudis brought a peace offer from the Taliban in 2007 which included a pledge to disassociate from Al-Qaeda, acceptance of a timetable for withdrawal of foreign troops, and acceptance by a national unity government until elections. The offer was rejected by the Charlatan and the Obaminator. US troops in the field, tired and alienated from the war and Afghans in general, are taking matters into their own hands by committing serial atrocities. Unquestionably beyond the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the current administration has badly handled the war. The best policy it could come up with was the aping of the Charlantan's "surge" in Iraq. The gambit was a failure, since the Taliban is still an effective fighting force in control of large regions of the country. When NATO troops withdraw (Australia has already announced it is withdrawing its forces early), the trajectory of Afghanistan will be toward civil war, not peaceful reconciliation.