A couple of months ago, the Australian prime minister signed
an agreement to allow selling uranium to India, which would likely be used to
manufacture nuclear weapons. It
should come as little surprise that, according to cables published by
WikiLeaks, the U.S. government pushed for this agreement.
The U.S. government has been cozying up to India for at
least the last 10 years, likely to gain an ally to help neutralize China. The U.S. government is forever shifting
its allies and enemies to suit its current day needs.
In 2004, Bush signed the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership
(NSSP) agreement with India. In
order to win Indian support for this, the U.S. government agreed to greater cooperation
regarding nuclear activities.
India has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT). With Australia
selling uranium, it is violating the NPT.
The U.S. would also seemingly be in violation, since it is encouraging
this action.
India previously sought to buy uranium for its nuclear
reactors, but it was prevented from doing so because it refused to be a part of
the NPT.
I suppose the Indian government realized what it needed to
do in order to get the uranium it wants.
It found a friend in Washington DC (for now) and traded favors. In this case, the favor for India was
to have the U.S. deliver a supplier of uranium, even if not directly.
The Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty
If you have paid much attention to the news in the past, you
have probably heard of the NPT.
There is a reason for this.
It was often cited by U.S. officials.
The pro-war groups in Washington DC, which are many, have
been long seeking to bomb Iran.
The Bush administration wanted to bomb Iran and the Obama administration
kept up the rhetoric, although perhaps with a slightly less belligerent tone.
One of the main reasons cited for starting a war with Iran
was because it was violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But even this claim is dubious, as most
of the evidence indicated that Iran was not trying to enrich uranium for
nuclear weapons. It was seeking
nuclear power.
Now Australia is in complete violation of the NPT and the
U.S. government appears also to be in violation of it. So what should U.S. government
officials propose as a solution?
Maybe they will advocate bombing the U.S. for violation of the treaty.
Meanwhile, India has continually refused to be a part of the
NPT, so there aren’t really any consequences. If a country such as Iran gets slapped with heavy sanctions
and continuous threats of war for supposedly violating the NPT, maybe the
country would have been better off not participating in the NPT.
Ironically, many Israeli officials have pushed for war
against Iran too, while Israel has also refused to sign on to the NPT.
Basically, what this means is that the NPT means nothing at
all. There can be greater negative
consequences for signing on to it in good faith than to not joining at
all. The Iranian people have
suffered through devastating sanctions that reduce their standard of living and
can sometimes lead to shorter lives.
Meanwhile, Australia can sell uranium to India with no consequences. It just all depends on if you are on
the good side of America, the land of the free.
WikiLeaks has done us another favor in exposing the
hypocrisy that goes on around the world.
Will others make the obvious connection that these are worse violations
than anything that Iran is doing?
The war makers don’t want Iran to have the ability to use
nuclear power, but they will have no problem with India building up its nuclear
arsenal of weapons that could blow up the world – as long as India remains in
good favor with the U.S. government.