Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Bush's India trip

Peace Action today denounced the plan for President George Bush to lay a memorial wreath in honor of Mohandas K. Gandhi when visiting India this week. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley announced the plan at a White House press briefing Friday.

“Mahatma Gandhi was a man of non-violence and peace, and is a hero to people all over the world. As his war-strewn presidency shows, George Bush knows nothing about non-violence. Gandhi would in no way condone his actions. Bush should reconsider this cynical, disrespectful display of symbolism,” said Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action.

The plan for Bush to “honor” Gandhi is even more astonishing given one of the main purposes of Bush’s trip -- to cement a deal for US nuclear aid to India, which would violate current US non-proliferation law and has drawn criticism from a host of peace, disarmament and non-proliferation groups. The deal will also be a tough sell to a skeptical Congress, which would need to amend US law to create a “loophole” to give nuclear technology to India because of its nuclear weapons arsenal....

See also Cheryl's discussion at Whirled View.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, Helmut.

I think the President's staff (and perhaps their counterparts in India) are desperately casting about for photo ops to cover the lack of a nuclear agreement. Last July, the expectation was that it would be past Congress and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group. So far, they can't even agree on the basics.

The Indians are dismayed that the President is showing his usual incuriosity and won't bother to go to see the Taj Mahal. He's seen pictures, he says.

But he has been chivvied into attending a cricket match in Pakistan. Let's see if the Great Athlete can wield a cricket bat without hurting himself.

So the Indians need something, although I suspect that it was Rove and company that came up with the Gandhi idea.

CKR

helmut said...

Really? He said he's seen pictures? What a doof!

I would be embarrassed for all of us if the rest of the world hadn't already passed through the seven stages of embarrassment.