Bush's atrocious India nuclear deal-- IMPEACH BUSH IMMEDIATELY

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

With this recent Bush nuclear deal with India all over the news, I wasn’t quite sure how it affected the international non-proliferation regime until I happened on some NYT editorials and a strongly worded op-ed by Bob Herbert recently:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-27.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-27.htm
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/03/opinion/edpakistan.php
http://www.topplebush.com/oped2589.shtml

Because of Bush’s direct breach of one of the central clauses of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (no nuclear tech sharing with non-signatories), he’s essentially made hash of the entire nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime that’s been in place for 4 decades. In fact, for those of you who’ve taken an international studies course, you can probably hear your professor shouting now in a high-decibel voice, because you can see exactly what this means: Based on longstanding principles of international law dating back to the 1600’s, the breach of a treaty signed by dozens of countries, on a fundamental point and by one of its leading administrators, means that the ENTIRE TREATY IS NOW NULL AND VOID. 4 decades of nuclear non-proliferation, now all up in smoke. Soon every two-bit terrorist and his fanatic brother will have access to nukes on the “free market” due to this deal’s eventual repercussions.

The only international legal cudgel we have against Iran and North Korea becoming nuclear powers is gone if this deal goes through Congress. They will effectively be free to construct, sell and distribute nukes at their leisure, as all the UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions against them—- rooted in the NPT—- have now been undermined. The legal rationale and consensus of world opposition to their nuclear proliferation collapses if the NPT goes down. Moreover, all other wannabe nuclear powers in the world (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Brazil among others) are free to resume their own long-stalled plans to initiate nuclear programs, and the capacity to prevent such nukes from winding up in al-Qaeda’s hands has been severely weakened. Even Thomas Friedman, essentially Bush’s unofficial palace propagandist, is trashing Bush on the rank stupidity of this move. Bush is essentially trying to turn the world into a nuclear-armed war zone—- if the deal goes through, it’s maybe only a decade before a terrorist manages to get his hands on a nuke to deliver express-mail to New York Harbor.

THIS IS THE LAST STRAW! It’s plainly obvious that this deal needs to be rejected by Congress. (And the DLC members had better not waver—- if they oppose the deal they’ll win back some of our respect, if they rubber-stamp it, there will be a revolution against them.) But what’s also obvious, is that Bush needs to be impeached, now. He’s not only an idiot and incompetent—- his stupidity is flat-out dangerous for the basic security of the world. Presidents since JFK, even from the GOP, have recognized the importance of non-proliferation and done everything possible to promote it, while Bush basically takes actions to encourage nukes to spread far and wide (it’s democracy, ya see).

The shame here is, it really is important to engage India and to work for better relations—- our mutual bitterness from our days as Cold War enemies has long needed some revision. But Bush picked the worst possible way to do it. We should be seeking out trade agreements and low-tariff zones, doing what we can to encourage mutual business contacts and offering rewards in return for India and Pakistan both stepping away from their nuclear weapons programs (as was done successfully with South Africa, for example). As per the routine, just about everything Bush touches turns to crap. For the sake of our great country and for the world, we need Bush out of the Oval Office without delay. Let’s hope that we’ll have at least some Republicans who care a modicum about our country, see how dangerous Bush is and join the Democrats in calling for Bush’s impeachment at once.

[jarnocan]

1. important and interesting

k+ R but not much we can do about Bu**sh** of all kinds w/o VERIFIABLE elections IMHO. not much hope for improvement or impeachment. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/225975843?ltl=1142113685 petition, links and info, Can we DU something about this? the freepers are (in a negative way)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. It's sunny in India, is it not?? It would be nice if the nuclear furnace

we relied upon was some distance from us... but then that's just me.

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1749

The new technology should be available in South Africa within a year and through a special converter, energy can be fed directly into the wiring of existing houses. New powerful storage units will allow energy storage to meet demands even in winter. The panels are so efficient they can operate through a Cape Town winter. while direct sunlight is ideal for high-energy generation, other daytime light also generates energy via the panels. A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research. The South African technology has now been patented across the world. International experts have admitted that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the South African invention. The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications. Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. the cost of the South African technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/south_africa_pi.php

Unspecified new storage devices (batteries of some sort) and converters have been created alongside these new cells to store the collected energy. It is suggested these new panels can generate electricity even during winter, not requiring direct sunlight to function. Seemingly German investors are behind establishing European plants, which will be producing 1,000 such panels per day, with local South African factories to also be contemplated. Much Thanks to TH Tipster Conrad Z. for pointing us to the piece in the ::Cape Argus.

[enough]

3. K&R

[5X]

4. I will K & R without trying to hijack your thread. n/t

[Deja Q]

5. I'm worried that Pakistan will launch a few nukes when all is official.

They may "pull a Bush" and pre-emptively nuke what they believe is an imminent threat to their country.

Damn right I'm scared:scared:

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

12. That's what I'm afraid of too!

India and Pakistan aren't like the US and USSR during the Cold War-- they're *right smack dab next to each other*, so there's very little warning if one side or the other launches nukes. The potential for error and an accidental nuclear launch, based on false or misleading data, is ENORMOUS while the margin for error is almost nonexistent. A bird flapping its wings the wrong way could provoke an Indo-Pak nuclear exchange if they both point a big line of missiles at each other-- in fact, I suspect that India and Pakistan will be the participants in the world's first nuclear war, unless they change their policies awfully fast. :nuke:

An already scary world, and now the Village Idiot in the Oval Office wants to make it umpteen times worse by essentially providing carte blanche for a further nuke build-up in India, which of course would provoke an arms race as Pakistan quickly responds. (And a pissed-off, anxious nuclear Pakistan is the last thing we need.) A US President with a modicum of higher brain function (which Bush seems to have killed in the midst of all his drunken stupors at Yale) would provide big economic incentives to turn India into an economic powerhouse in return for eschewing nukes, as in the case of South Africa, but Bush was too dumb to figure this out. :grr: Congress is now the only obstacle standing in the way of a regional and global disaster.

Coupled with this, now Pakistan has even less incentive to cooperate in rounding up al-Qaeda operatives, as the NYT editorial was noting. It was after all a chiefly Pakistani security services raid that nabbed Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks-- but now, fair or not, they see this as a stab in the back. What matters here is perceptions, and the Pakistani leadership, corrupt though it may be, has been rounding up al-Qaeda fighters because they figured they'd at least get something in return from the US. Now this motivation appears to have disappeared, and any leader who cooperates with the US risks tremendous popular wrath.

[unblock]

6. it's also amazing how LOW the upside is for shrub's move

absolutely idiotic.

the downside includes more nuclear proliferation elsewhere, and of course pissing off pakistan, and increasing india-pakistan tensions.

and the upside is ... ??? geez, what the hell IS the upside???

[ktlyon]

11. We sold something to someone not us

Trade Deficit

[etherealtruth]

7. I heard Joseph Cirincione ...

... from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, blasting this agreement.
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/npp/

Thanks for more articles and editorials offering more info and insight.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

19. Thanks for the Cirincione article too

He states the case with particular lucidity. The very security of the world depends on Congress defeating this nuclear deal, to prevent nuclear arms from truly going global. I also like Cirincione's point, that nuclear arms have been too closely associated with national prestige, and that Bush has only fostered this further. A more sensible President would have pushed a trade deal in return for forsaking nuclear weapons, thus associated prestige with getting rid of nukes. But Bush is too clueless to recognize this.

[tecelote]

8. What is the justification for this deal?

Once again the media seems to be simply printing WH press releases and all I can see is that in exchange for invaluable nuclear technology we get to have inspections of only a portion of India's programs. How does this benefit us? How does this balance the obvious negative political ramifications worldwide?

Where's the WTF reaction?

[splat@14]

9. Fear of the US hegemony (Iran, Korea,) or of the world around them

(Pakistan, India, Israel) I see the world powers as out of control in their desire to have nuclear weapons. The sad part is that there are currently enough nuclear weapons out there to kill everyone on the planet a few times over while there's an underfunded AIDs epidemic in Africa, people starving and living in abject poverty throughout Asia, South America, Africa, and the US. Just think of what the funds and efforts channeled toward destruction could do if we just had a change in priorities.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

16. Exactly. The US, for that matter, should be moving away from nukes

Even established nuke nations like the US and Russia should be reducing our stockpiles down to at most a couple dozen nukes, a sort of deterrent against invasion and nothing more. No nation should possess enough nuclear arms to enable an offensive strike. This is too destabilizing. The US and Russia have come close to nuking each other many times in the past and we're still in great danger. Just as South Asia would benefit from becoming a nuclear-free zone, maybe we should consider moving in the same direction.

[lonestarnot]

10. Get it ready, but have to wait until November.

[Toots]

13. Didn't Bush* undermine the SALT II Treaty as well?

I think there have been other Treaties that Bush* has blatantly violated and made obsolete. Geneva Accords for instance. The author is right this Administration (Cabal) is extremely dangerous for the US and the whole world. They need to be Impeached without delay. How many Americans even know what a Treaty is let alone name any of them or consider what the consequence might be for violating them? :shrug: American society as a whole is not very well educated.

[Zambero]

14. Keeping Armageddon on track

Does anyone still doubt what Mr. Bush's real agenda is by now? How else can you explain this type of insanity, along with the Dubai ports fiasco, and deliberately manipulating intelligence to justify a pre-emptive war in the Middle East? Pat Robertson must be grinning ear to ear these days. No need to worry about long term problems such as mounting deficits when the end is at hand anyway!

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

15. Good point, maybe Bush thinks he's "speeding things up" a little

As you say, no need to worry about mounting and catastrophic deficits, environmental protection or the increasing impoverishment of the American people, in Bush's mind, if Armageddon is around the corner anyway. This is the problem with having these idiots in high office. Their fantasies would be fine if they kept it to themselves, but when they grab power, they insist on perpetrating misery on the rest of us as well. In this respect among others, the reigning culture among the Red States really is incompatible with that in the rest of the nation.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

17. Here's another article, in the Economist-- good summary

The Economist varies in its quality but they're right on the nose here in their criticism of the Bush deal, and their encouragement to Congress to reject it: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5603449

This makes it even more clear how incredibly dangerous the world will become if this nuclear deal does indeed go through. Counter-proliferation goes out the window, and nations across the world will be free to resume nuclear testing, and to embark on new programs to generate nukes. I'm not exaggerating, when I say that this vote in Congress is quite possibly the most important to come forward in the past 20 years. If Congress approves this deal, then the world is likely headed on an irrevocable course toward Nuclear Holocausts across the 6 continents. OTOH, if Congress rejects the deal, we'll then have an opportunity to fashion an agreement with India based on something more appropriate and mutually beneficial like trade pacts, instead of nuclear proliferation. It's up to Congress to be sensible on this.

I suspect that almost every Democrat in Congress (not to mention many, if not most Republicans) is opposed to this deal. But if there in fact any waverers, among the DLC for example, we need to be putting tremendous pressure on them, e.g. in the fashion of warning them of severe electoral consequences, if they waver. The very peace of the world depends on their vote on this matter.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

18. What everyone needs to get their mind around these days

Everyone always wonders how can they do these things. They wonder, how could a government do something like 911 to their own people?

The reason? They don't care about the United States. I know that's hard to get your mind around. Everyone think that you were born and raised here, you love the country, you want to see it succeed. They don't. Some even want to see the country fail and be swallowed into a One World Government. Those are the people running the country right now.

[DaveT]

20. That is the most difficult aspect to understand,

but it is the key to making sense out of the entire Bush Presidency. From the bankruptcy inducing tax cuts before 9/11 to the willfully preposterous "strategy" of using the "Northern Alliance" to attack Afghanistan while catapulting the propaganda for a bogus war in Iraq that was doomed to fail on its own terms for want sufficient troop strength to this criminally perverse deal with India -- and everything in between -- the common denominator for all of Bush's policies is a drive to end the American Republic.

Lord knows we have never lived up to all our ideals, but nobody in high office has ever before made the subversion of those ideals the primary goal of public policy.

What holds it all together, even now, that Bush has shown himself to be a wall to wall catastrophe is the fact that he pisses "liberals" off. The 35% who are sticking with him even now have nothing at all to support based on their own weird philosophy -- but at least he's not a liberal.

Waking up our self described "conservative" countrymen to this unique maladministration based on antipatriotism is the key to saving our skins.


Waiting for the global corporations who own the "media" to oppose the destruction of our civil society spells doom for us all. Only when a huge majority of the people -- 70 or 80 percent -- physically demands that this madness stop will it stop.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

24. Amen to that sentiment, bro

Bush, Cheney and their corporate cronies feeding at the trough, the Halliburtons and Custer Battles who get no-bid contracts and slaps on the wrist when they screw us over to the tune of billions-- they don't care one whit about the good of the republic, only their own back pockets. The India nuclear deal is in the same ilk, since a few ultra-rich fat-cat Bush cronies in the nuclear industry would get some sweet no-bid contracts, screwing over the republic and endangering the security of the world in the process. Once again, they don't care about the republic-- it's all for themselves, and screw the rest of the world.

As you say, we can't wait for the corporate media, also in Bush's back pocket, to take back our country. There are some good outfits here (like the NYT, which published the editorials above), but too much of the MSM is just too happy to go along with Bush's ruinous ventures if they think they'll make a buck out of them too. Nobody's looking after the good of the republic anymore except us. If need be, we need to protest right in front of Congress if they even consider approving this nuclear deal, to publicly shame and humiliate members of Congress who consider voting for it, and to ensure tremendous pain in November for any idiot who considers voting for the deal. We have to be assertive at this point, even militant if necessary, to let the MSM know that we don't tolerate the destruction of our republic for the sake of making Bush's fat-cat cronies even richer.

[NastyRiffraff]

21. But, but....look what WE get out of the deal!

MANGOES!!!!

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

25. Mmmm, mmmm good-- mangoes go great with radioactive fallout

The radiation helps to draw out the flavor of the mango pulp, giving it a little fizz and pop that's oh so tasty and delicious. I even hear you can slurp up that sweet mango juice up through the straw of a radiation suit. Although they also say the things don't store up well in a fallout shelter. Shucks, I guess you'd have to raid the mangoes before getting to the canned soup and crackers.

[cosmicdot]

22. what came first...GE or Bu$h's recent deal-making?

Ray-gun was spokesperson for GE for years, and when Poppy and he October Surprised their way into the White House, GE was one of his first guests; and, the FCC regs changed; and, suddenly GE owned NBC ...

does GE have another spokesperson serving its corporate interests over our security and common good in the White House?


GE's using 'green' type ... gee, it must be environment-friendly <sarcasm>
http://www.gepower.com/businesses/ge_nuclear/en/index.htm

Did former GE CEO Jack Welch (one of Poppy's presidential library trustees) ever turn over the tapes from his 2000 call to declare Bu$h president-elect?

To further compound the pro-Bush media bias, Ruppert Murdoch, a militant Bush supporter, hired Bush's cousin Jon Ellis to handle Fox's Election Night coverage. It was Ellis who wrongly called the election for Bush at a time when the Florida Secretary of State's web site showed a vote difference that was much too close to call. This gross error was compounded by General Electric CEO Jack Welch, another militant Bush supporter, who demanded that NBC follow FOX in calling the election for Bush, which it did. An NBC tape of the studio discussions documents this scandal, but NBC refuses to turn over this tape to Rep. Henry Waxman who has been trying to get this tape for a year. http://archive.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=6543


Reuters July 23, 2005

With Bush's help, GE courts Indian PM, nuke sector

In-Depth Coverage By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just over an hour after the White House's surprise pledge to help India develop its civilian nuclear power sector, the head of General Electric, the American company that could benefit most from the policy change, sat down for a celebratory dinner.

The host was President George W. Bush; a few feet away was India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his top aides. GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, a contributor to Bush's presidential campaigns, had a coveted seat at the president's table.

Bush's announcement on nuclear trade with India -- followed by a formal dinner in the State dining room -- was not just a victory for Singh. For GE, the only U.S.-owned company still in the nuclear business, it marked a possible turning point in a years-long push to re-enter the Indian nuclear power market, which it was forced to leave in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test.

"In the short term, it's really business as usual. ... But if things unfold the way it looks they may, then clearly it is a significant opportunity for us," said Peter Wells, general manager of marketing for GE Energy's nuclear business.

While the policy change may benefit GE and other companies in the long term, critics contend Bush's move closer to accepting the world's largest democracy as a nuclear weapons state could weaken decades-old prohibitions against atomic arms.

~snip~

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050723-ge-india-nuke.htm


GE Energy targets over $1 billion revenues in India by 2010

New Delhi, June 23, 2005 - GE Energy today announced that as part of its India growth strategy, it will be targeting revenues of more than US$1 billion in the country by 2010. GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2004 revenue of $17.3 billion.

John G. Rice, President and CEO of GE Energy, who recently completed a two-day visit to India, reaffirmed GE's commitment to provide support for the restart of the Dabhol Power Project. He said GE Energy is already working with a team from NTPC and BHEL to determine a course of action for restarting and completing the Dabhol Power Project. "It is our view that a fully producing Dabhol plant is in the best interests of the people and we are eager to assist in whatever way we can to bring power to the people of Maharashtra at the earliest."

Mr. Rice added that GE is committed and plans to support India in its Power for All by 2012 and rural electrification initiatives. He said, "India is placing a lot of importance and emphasis on the development of non-conventional energy resources. It is expected that the rural electrification drive will light up as many as 25,000 villages by 2009 and we believe that GE can play a very important role in realizing this goal."

~snip~

http://www.ge.com/in/news/news_india_12.html

[mom cat]

23. If Bush nukes the NPT then he can't nuke Iran!