Thursday, July 31, 2008

john burns, others tell us what the n-deal is really all about from the US pov

jul 30, 2008

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/31ndeal2.htm

'cap, rollback, and eliminate' by other means.

some relevant quotes:

...

Burns said, "When this agreement was negotiated, it was fully consistent with the provisions of the Hyde Act. So we have the right to terminate it if India tests." But he said it was highly unlikely that India would conduct a nuclear test.

...

He also added, "No aspect of this deal recognises India as a nuclear weapons state."

...

He predicted that "a conservative estimate would be that within a generation, 90 percent of India's nuclear establishment would be under IAEA safeguards�none of that would have been possible without this fundamental break with conventional wisdom that President Bush put forward three years ago."

...

Burns, who is expected to land a top job soon in the private sector as soon as he completes his three-month sojourn at the Wilson Center, said, "US business ought to be at the head of the line when India begins to expand its construction of civil nuclear reactors."

...

Cohen also said that it was highly unlikely that India would conduct nuclear tests unless China and Pakistan began testing "because I don't think they need the kind of complex, sophisticated system to make themselves to great power status."
 
But Talbott strongly disagreed, saying, while he had 'no inside knowledge' his recollection "There remains a debate within the strategic community in India over whether the Pokhran tests were truly successful and fully sufficient for the scientific and military purposes involved."
 
"So, I think that is an open question at least in some very smart brains in India. So, I don't think we can be totally confident on that score," he argued.

3 comments:

Uddharet said...

Manmohan Singh is (nominally, or titularly) an economist and belongs to the same tribe as Amartya Sen. (see, at the end, Ambrose Bierce's definition of a certain tribe). But even an economist of the tribe should be smart enough to know that the Hyde Act will prevail over the "Agreement". Another way of putting it is that it is often difficult to distinguish between a fool and a knave.

Definition from Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary": “Idiot: A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole". He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.”

Anonymous said...

We are screwed. We can thank the Italian for parcelling and selling off India's interests

Itsdifferent said...

I think thats why Cho Ramasamy's comments about India enacting a similar law to protect its interests outside of the agreement makes sense.
In His recent interview he said, he proposed that as a solution to BJP command. He was very correct when he said, anyways the congress is going to win the vote in the parliament. Atleast BJP should to try to negotiate with congress on such a law and could have supported the vote of confidence.

It could have done two things good in my mind.
1. Isolate the Chinese sucking commies.
2. Create a framework to protect out interests with our constitutional authority.