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Welcome to the United States of Duplicity
By Mike Whitney
03/07/06 "ICH"
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Bush’s nuclear-summit with Prime Minister Singh was rehearsed long
before he teetered off to India. That explains why the media was all
atwitter over Bush’s severing the last frail strands of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT); the press loves to see our
Crawford-strongman rummaging through international agreements like a
bull in a China shop.
Bush manages nuclear issues like a schoolboy handing out
party-favors; rewarding India with one deal, offering a different
one to Pakistan, and then a third for Iran.
This is how Bush has expanded America’s traditional double-standards
into “triple standards”; a new nadir in foreign policy.
In just days, Bush toppled long-honored safeguards for the
allocation and control of fissile material, and created a “nuclear
bizarre” to be exclusively regulated by the United States. His trip
tells the world that global nuclear-policy will now be decided by
the Pentagon big-wigs and hard-right fanatics who dominate the Bush
White House.
No wonder the media was so awestruck by Bush’s performance and
celebrated his recklessness as “groundbreaking” or “a landmark
deal”. The press seems to relish the idea that America can
single-handedly nudge the planet ever-closer to nuclear destruction.
Bush’s deal with PM Singh allows him to provide technology and fuel
to a nation that has stubbornly refused to comply with
internationally-accepted standards for the supervision of nuclear
material. The agreement flaunts the NPT, the IAEA, the United
Nations, and the US Congress, which is the body that is supposed to
ratify such pacts before they are enacted.
Instead, Bush has elected himself “the god of all things nuclear”;
capriciously revamping 20 years of nuclear policy with a sweep of
the hand. Why would any country sign the NPT when America claims to
be the sole arbiter of its application?
Former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami has already noted the
duplicity of the Bush-system. He said, “I believe that
double-standards are to blame for the crisis in our region and the
world, because if a rational and fair approach were pursued, all
issues of contention could be resolved easily and peacefully.”
How could anyone dispute that?
Bush hands out technology to a “nuclear cheater” like India while
his UN ambassador, John Bolton, is busy threatening Iran with
“tangible and painful consequences” for complying with the terms of
NPT.
What kind of message does that send?
Bolton’s blustery speech was delivered at a meeting of the powerful
Jewish lobby AIPAC, where he stated that America was “beefing up
defensive measures to cope with the Iranian threat”.
“Beefing up defensive measures”? Will America really go to war again
when the IAEA has repeatedly said that there is “no evidence of an
Iranian nuclear weapons program”?
So, what is the yardstick the administration uses to decide who gets
technology and who doesn’t?
Regrettably, it looks like the only principles guiding American
foreign policy are cynicism and self-aggrandizement. India gets the
royal treatment because it’s seen as a strategic ally that will help
contain China. It also promises to lift limits on foreign investment
ensuring that more of America’s high-paying, high-tech jobs will
continue to flee the country. Pakistan has less to offer by way of
market-potential, but is still a valued ally in the war on terror.
Iran, unfortunately, sits atop an ocean of oil which is coveted by
American petroleum giants and guarantees that it will receive a
laser-guided dose of shock-and-awe, followed by “liberation” of its
vital resources.
If these aren’t the Machiavellian principles that underscore Bush’s
foreign policy, then what are?
The administration’s shortsighted approach to proliferation is
dragging the world towards disaster. No one will accept this
blinkered standard for regulating nukes.
The threadbare treaties that once slowed the production of nuclear
weaponry have all been tossed overboard. Now development is to be
decided according to the whims of Washington mandarins and their
corporate colleagues.
What kind of fool would ever listen to them?
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