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.