HUH?! Bush wants to send our nuclear info to India!

[Crazy Cooter]

Can anyone explain how this is a good idea?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8620995/


"President Bush agreed yesterday to share civilian nuclear technology with India, reversing decades of U.S. policies designed to discourage countries from developing nuclear weapons.
...
According to a White House communique yesterday, Bush agreed that "India should acquire the same benefits and advantages" as other states with advanced nuclear technology. Bush vowed to "work to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India."

Under the terms of the deal, India agreed to place its civilian nuclear facilities -- but not its nuclear weapons arsenal -- under international monitoring and pledged to continue to honor a ban on nuclear testing. In return, it would have access, for the first time, to conventional weapons systems and to sensitive U.S. nuclear technology that can be used in either a civilian or a military program. It could also free India to buy the long-sought-after Arrow Missile System developed by Israel with U.S. technology.

The agreement does not call for India to cease production of weapons-grade plutonium, which enables India to expand its nuclear arsenal.



Emphasis added by me.
Certainly this will bring our boys home... 
I mean, how tough will it be for "bad guys" to buy/steal this stuff from India?

Even Bush huggers have to admit that injecting nuclear information (and allowing India to process the spent fuel rods into nuclear weapons) along with additional "weapons systems" is a bad bad idea.

[DrewKaree]

I admit, I didn't read the actual story, just your quotes.

Stuff like this, I just don't get.  At first, when I read "civilian", I was figuring power plants and the like. 

On the surface (and deeper down, too, I'd bet) this seems stupid.  More information is definitely needed about this.

Hey, does that make you a Kerry hugger?

[Crazy Cooter]

I hug everyone.

I wish I had more info to give, but haven't found much yet.  If it was just civilian kind of stuff, I would be was bad enough.  But from what info I can find it's a terrible move on our part.  India already has nuclear weapons as well as Pakistan (for those that don't know, they pretty much hate each other) so I don't see the point in us telling them how to use it in a civilian manner.  You'd think they already understand how things work.

Now factor in how they can already manufacture weapon grade material... I just don't get it.  If the idea is to get us out of the region, why would we start chumming the shark filled waters?

There was a reference to "accelerating Indias growth to keep up with China" (not a direct quote).  China just isolated their money value from the American dollar too.  Maybe there's something big developing.  Are we shoring up India to get leverage on China?  That's the only thing I can think of.  Of course I don't like that idea either.

[Dartful Dodger]

They need to be able to defend themselves from Hitlery.

[RayB]

Nice. As most of us have already heard, there have been massive thefts of personal data (credit card records, etc) done as inside jobs at companies that were used for outsourced services. Now why would nuclear materials and the even higher value that has , not also be subject to the same risks?

[ChadTower]

It's no different than when Clinton sold proprietary missle guidance technology to the Chinese, selling them the ability to reach us with missles... this sort of thing happens more than we would want to know.

[Crazy Cooter]

Nuclear fuel in India would go to unknown places.  Did they use it themselves in their weapons program?  Nobody would know because nobody can check it.  Did they sell it on the black market?  Nobody would know because nobody can check it.

Selling outdated  guidance systems is to fuel rods as a pencil is to paint.  And we want to open the paint cans in a day care facility where the "paper" is our soldiers.

"Injecting" nuclear technology into an unstable region is completely different.  No matter what you political flavor is.

Who is the arch rival of India?  Pakistan.  So much for them helping us anymore.  They'll be too busy refining their nuclear program to stay on par with India.

[paigeoliver]

If they already have nuclear weapons I don't see any decent reason NOT to share our power plant technology with them, China too. The quicker India and China raise their standards of living the quicker we will get our jobs back in America again.

[Samstag]

Yeah, they already have nuclear weapons.  Our technology may improve them a bit, but it's really testing which improves nukes, and they're continuing to abide by the testing ban.

I think this is intended to put pressure on China, which has recently been expanding and modernizing its conventional forces.  At some point in the future China is probably going to force the Taiwan issue unless we are able to keep them in check.

A powerful and unfriendly China is infinitely more dangerous than terrorists with a nuke or two.

[ChadTower]

"Injecting" nuclear technology into an unstable region is completely different.

[Baker535]

Normally I don't make comments on these types of discussions, but that article was so absurdly written, I just had to. What it suggests is ridiculous. There are so many inferences drawn and the whole tone developed by the writer is just plain erroneous. That type of journalism should be illegal. No wonder Americans are so paranoid, but of course you can't manipulate the puppet if you don't have strings to pull.

The only thing it tells me without any doubt is how sensationalism sells... and business is good.

Also bringing in comments of China are a bit contrived. They have just started really dipping their hands into the honeypot of a global market and seem to like it. The threat of a conventional or nuclear war while they are "coming into their own" is far from what they want, even over Taiwan. When/if their move does happen it will be a very nasty political war, not these little jabs. Of course there will always be the obligatory sabre rattling, possibly some military conflict, but it wont be for awhile longer or on a large scale.

I guess someones gotta be "The New Russia". Who else of potential significance can we have play the bad guy in this day and age? We need something to keep us motivated/manipulated. The Middle East isn't going to cut it much longer. Their world influence is only going to last as long as their oil, only to resurface when the latest terrorist tactic unfolds.

This once again breaks down into real estate and resources. For the most part America only helps (exploits) those that eventually reap a return economically/politically. That's why we have to keep our nose in everyones business. As long as America doesn't keep selling out our greatest assets right away (Crucial Technology, Media, "Freedom" and Promotion of Business, Ideas, Success, Excess), we will continue to keep our strong hand in world affairs. Of course that doesn't mean our country won't still be rotting away internally, but that's a whole other ball game for discussion.

I think this move can be a brilliant strategy on several major levels, but no plan on this type of scale is ever perfect. More on this later if necessary and time permitting.*


-baker


*Man... I gotta lay off the caffeine. Sorry I wandered there for a bit. Well I guess it could provide some more fun fuel for the fire. So I left all of my comments in.