May 9, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs

Yet another non-proliferation ayatollah has stated that the United States refuses to acknowledge India and Pakistan as ‘nuclear weapons’ states. That line is so out of tune with reality that it is beginning to make the United States look like Alice, of Wonderland fame. What’s worse, its making US non-proliferation policy look like half-eaten spaggetti.

So the United States imposes sanctions on India and Pakistan after nuclear tests; but Bush lifts them due to the necessity of Pakistan in the global war on terror. Pakistan is proven to be a serial proliferator of nuclear technology even after it signed up for the war on terror, but the United States closed both eyes, only publicly, we are told.

A completely clean record on proliferation and a declared policy on no-first use and non-proliferation demonstrates a history and culture of responsibility and restraint on India’s part. Yet the United States uses every opportunity to suggest that India’s nuclear weapons are somehow illegitimate and illegal. They are neither.

If the international community really intends to check the spread of nuclear weapons it has to first face the realities; successful policies are usually those built on pragmatism. All that remains of American non-proliferation policy is dogma.

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