Nukes R US

Fred Kaplan says Bush's nuclear deal with India was slack and supine:

A cardinal rule of negotiation, whether for labor talks or international diplomacy, is don't be afraid to leave the table. Bush broke this rule.

India needed this deal more than the United States did. Yet it was India that got everything it wanted—and Washington that caved. The deal was wrapped up less than two hours before Bush was scheduled to hold his press conference in New Delhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Bush reportedly ordered his negotiators to give in on the final disputes rather than defer the accord and mangle his timetable.

Under the deal, India gets all the benefits of a country that has signed the Nonproliferation Treaty — without having to sign it or follow its most restrictive demands. That is to say, India gets to import nuclear fuel and technology to produce nuclear energy — while also continuing to build as many nuclear weapons as it desires.

Kaplan is left scratching his head because he cannot see how this deal is in the USA's best interests, or even the worlds. He is of course failing to look at the deal from a Bush-Cheney-Halliburton Inc. point of view: we are not getting our hands on Iraqi oil any time soon, so lets blow open the doors to Big Business nuclear deals.