HELP STOP U.S.-INDIA NUCLEAR DEAL
Before the deal can be finalized, Congress must amend the Atomic Energy Act to allow the U.S. to enable nuclear cooperation with India without requiring India to sign the NPT or give up production of nuclear bomb making materials. The House passed legislation on July 26, 2006 allowing the deal to proceed while the companion bill in the Senate has not been voted on. Maine Democratic Party Congressmen Tom Allen and Mike Michaud voted in favor of the House bill that passed by a margin of 359-68. Most progressive members of Congress voted against it. (Tom Allen has publicly stated that the U.S. must help India expand its nuclear industry in order to deal with global warming.)
Everywhere Mary Beth Sullivan and I went during our recent speaking tour in India our peace activist hosts were talking about this nuclear deal. While the U.S. is condemning North Korea and Iran for pursuing nuclear weapons, the White House is offering to supply India with nuclear fuel that would enable them to build as many as 30-40 more nukes a year. They could not understand why the American peace movement was not more aware of the bill that will dramatically increase nuclear tensions in Southern Asia, already a flashpoint for nuclear war as Pakistan and China will be forced to respond to India’s nuclear expansion. It became clearer to me that the U.S. intends to use India as a “military outpost” in its aggressive attempt to surround and “manage” China in the years ahead. The U.S. weapons industry is arming Pakistan and India, playing divide and conquer in the region, and making enormous profits in the process from the resulting arms race.
The New York Times, wrote on March 7, 2006, "The nuclear deal that Mr. Bush concluded with India threatens to blast a bomb-size loophole through the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It would have been bad enough on its own, and disastrously ill timed, because it undercuts some of the most powerful arguments Washington can make to try to galvanize international opposition to Iran's nuclear adventurism..."
"This nuclear bill is not about nuclear technology or about selling some US reactors to India," the diplomat said. "The U.S. is buying a relationship and in the process India's strategic interest is being served. It will also help the Indian economy to grow by 10 per cent."
When Congress comes back to Washington for the short lame duck session in January, the administration is pushing the Senate to take up the U.S.-India nuclear deal.
The U.S. should develop a consistent position on nuclear weapons. We should not help other countries develop nukes and we should honor the NPT and get rid of our own.
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