nixon & china - bush & india

Bush counters China through new best friend
March 4, 2006
The Sydney Morning Herald

SO FAR it is hard to see an opera being written about George Bush's visit to New Delhi and his endorsement of India as a nuclear power, but already at least one commentator has compared it to Richard Nixon in China. ....

If the occasion lacked the stark drama of the saturnine US commie-baiting politician sipping tea with Mao Zedong to plot an alignment against the Soviet Union, it had some echoes of the surprise realpolitik manoeuvre in the early 1970s.

John Howard, due to visit New Delhi tomorrow, is left somewhat like his predecessor Billy McMahon, who had been calling the ALP leader, Gough Whitlam, a traitor for doing just what Nixon was about to do. ...

Meanwhile, no one is fooled by Bush's suggestion that the nuclear deal is about global warming and reducing pressure on oil demand - dismissed as laughable by Peter Hayes, head of San Francisco's Nautilus Institute, which studies energy and nuclear issues. "The actual rationale is to develop a strategic relationship to deal with the perceived challenges arising from China," Hayes said. ...

"The lesson Iran is likely to draw is simple: if you hold out long enough the Americans will cave in," Joseph Cirincione, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a commentary. "All this talk about violating treaties, they will reason, is just smoke. When the Americans think you are important enough they will break the rules to accommodate you." ...

"This would allow India to increase its production from the estimated six to 10 additional nuclear bombs per year to several dozen per year," Cirincione said.

The agreement frees up US exports of advanced conventional military equipment so far under embargo. ...

EXCLUSIVE CLUB

* The nuclear non-proliferation treaty obliges the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon nations (the US, Russia, Britain, France and China) not to transfer nuclear weapons or technology to any non-nuclear weapon states.

* Three nations - India, Pakistan, and Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons but will not confirm - have declined to sign the treaty. They argue that the treaty creates a club of "nuclear haves" and a larger group of "nuclear have-nots".


as shallow as this will sound, i'll say it, condi really needs to find a wardrobe consultant, ... or by the picture, can george just not keep his eyes off her? lol