Say Goodbye to the NPT: U.S. Begins Nuclear Assistance to India

As the world focuses in on the United States/Saudi Arabian arms deal, there has been another deal that has gone unnoticed. Last week the U.S. government signed a controversial 'civilian' deal with India in the pursuit of their nuclear program. Named the 123 agreement, India and the United States have agreed upon India creating a civilian based nuclear program with the assistance of the United States.

"The details of the so-called '123 agreement' are still shrouded in secrecy but, on the basis of what has been disclosed, it is clear that the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation deal is an example of crude realpolitik trumping nuclear nonproliferation principles in total disregard of the NPT," exclaimed Jayantha Djanapala, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs.

Although India has nuclear weapons...this agreement suggests that India has been accepted as part of the nuclear weapons club. Does this not seem suspicious? For the last 6 years we have given their neighbor...and rival...Pakistan over 10 billion in arms. Are we not fueling an arms race between these two prospective nations? Has the NPT failed? If we wander around the world and give arms and nuclear support to those that have not signed the NPT aren't we just perpetuating the nuclear dilemma?..a nuclear disaster?

"... the people of India and Pakistan will pay the price, since the nuclear deal will fuel the India-Pakistan nuclear arms race... The deal will allow India to increase its capacity to make nuclear weapons materiel, and Pakistan has already said it will do whatever it can to keep up with India...this means nuclear establishments in both countries will become more powerful, drain even greater resources away from social development, and increase the nuclear danger in South Asia," exclaims Zia Mian of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

"The problem wit
h the deal is not that it acknowledges that India has nuclear weapons...The problem is that both India and the United States are showing no signs of working towards the elimination of their arsenals together with other states possessing nuclear weapons." stated John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy in NY.

This deal represents a clear reversal of the polices set forth by the NPT itself. How is it possible for the U.S. to 'sell' through 'civilian' sources....Nuclear information? The United States is becoming the new Pakistani A Q Kahn. Not with our military....but with our 'contractors' . This is a war of profit maximization...not to stop terrorism. Straight hypocrisy. Are we truly fighting this war on terror or are we perpetuating a cycle of arms dealing dubbed a 'generational war' for the profits of the military industrial complex. As Zia Mian of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton states,

"...the deal is also a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1172, adopted on 6 June 1998, which was passed unanimously, and called upon India and Pakistan "immediately to stop their nuclear weapon development programmes, to refrain from weaponisation or from the deployment of nuclear weapons, to cease development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons." That resolution also encouraged all States to "prevent the export of equipment, materials or technology that could in any way assist programs in India or Pakistan for nuclear weapons"

Stop the insanity. Currently we are arming our enemies and the enemies of our enemies...the same as we have done before...and as history dictates...Blowback will undoubtedly occur. The Bush Administration is committing a farce on the American public. Stand up and make your voice heard. Stop the Tyranny. Stop the insanity...we all bleed the same. The world weeps.

Same Players. Different Scandal.