Re: [Marxism] On The US-India Nuclear Agreement [response to all the other nuclear items),

[dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Sukla,
 I don't disagree that much in your description, generally, of the problems of 
proliferation. I'm fanatically anti-nuclear weapons. So, I couldn't/wouldn't 
disagree
with Indian activists such as yourself fighting proliferation. This is not what 
I have 
a problem with. I have a problem with the US telling India they can't have 
nuclear 
weapons. I have a problem with the US imposing trade sanctions or any sanction 
on 
India as they did in 1974 to "punish" India for doing something the US has 
done. 
 
The original NPT five (5 not 6, my mistake) are the same as the permanent 
members of the UN: UK, France, China, USA, USSR/Russia. I don't "like" nuclear 
proliferation, at the same 
time I have no respect for the above 5 powers telling everyone else what they 
can 
and cannot do. The framework of the NPT is dubious, IMO, at best.
 
Thus, I don't like the US telling Iran whether they can pursue fuel 
reprocessing. 
They are telling Iran what they can do and what they can't *under the guise of 
the 
NPT*. Thus the NPT becomes a tool of US imperialism, since only the US can even 
contemplate enforcing the NPT via military means. Sulka, what is your opinion 
on this and where do you stand?
 
India. The "Global Nuclear Energy Partnership" is the Bush administration's 
paradigm to spread nuclear power, and therefore, US control over the same 
technology. While it is supposed to be multi-lateral, it is, in fact, 
bi-lateral. The 
GNEP is in fact what the US is using to bring India into the comfort zone of US 
imperialism. 
 
While it is true, Sukla, that this is an initiative of the US, you a really 
haven't 
expressed  *why * it serves "their interests", as you say. I went over this a 
little, but 
you dismissed it out of hand, which I thought odd. I gave several reasons, all 
of 
which, BTW, should be obvious to most people: control, profit and influence, in 
that order.
 
The control aspect is important, very important. By bringing India into GNEP it 
means India *has to* get it's fuel for it's civilian plants from the 
"International Fuel 
Pool". They will be allowed some domestic reprocessing, but not a lot (a new 
deal
was just signed yesterday on this in fact). From this 
perspective, it's enough to oppose the US-India deal since it cedes control to 
the 
US-run fuel bank, generally, over fuel supplies. How can this be good and how 
can 
this enhance Indian control over their energy resources?  Does India get 
anything 
out of it? Well, of course. They get US technology, and widens the sources for 
*other * aspects of the nuclear energy industry from France and Russia 
(especially 
the latter) to the US. It gives them more choice (meaning Westinghouse and GE)  
to 
choose from in developing nuclear energy which, these days, can be a good 
thing, 
not a bad thing.
 
It also undermines funding, albeit indirectly, to the Thorium side of the 
industry and 
why some engineers have come out against the deal: they are getting budget 
cuts. 
This is another discussion, however.
 
But here is the interesting thing: India gets to keep it's military nuclear 
complex 
alive. This is a concession *by* the United States, not a capitulation by India 
to the 
US as Sulka might have us believe. Going into these negotiations, the far right 
in 
the US wanted India to *give up* it's nuclear weapons ambitions. So?does 
scuttling this agreement necessarily mean scuttling "imperialist plans"? I'm 
not so 
sure it does. It would certainly scuttle the clear "privileged" position on 
technology 
the US wanted to achieve, that' for sure, and, perhaps is worth opposing it for 
this 
reason along.
 
But getting the NPT 5 (the others being basically irrelevant), at the level of 
diplomacy, to get India not to maintain it's military nuclear capability is 
just the wrong way to go.
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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