India joins ICBM Club!

[Portuguese Rebel]

Our words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS. - Gandhi.

STFU Ghandi, my tanks are all around your cities

[aqd]

Congrats!

[DarthLazy]

Why so much Gandhi hate?

[Caelius]

well you can blame dubya for that; he went ahead and practically gave India american nuclear technology-which of course provided China with the precedent of gifting Pakistan new nuclear reactors.

You realize of course....that India had nukes long before then right? What Bush did (and Obama has reinforced) is perfectly legal within the NPT.

[Poet]

Something tells me Gandhiji wouldn't approve of any of this....

Gandhi was way better than Nehru or others but all 1947 massacre happened under his nose, he was better than others but no saint.

[DarthLazy]

Was not state sanctioned, Gandhi cannot be blamed .

[Poet]

Was not state sanctioned, Gandhi cannot be blamed .

I don't think so, he could stop that after all he was their bapu. Coming back on topic, what would have been Western reaction if such missile had fired by Pakistan?

[DarthLazy]

How could he stop that? It was no unified action you know . Was really out of his control .

[Kitsunegari]

I think by delaying the inevitable partition due to his vain hopes of unity it was made a lot worse. If it had happened while the British authorities were still there the worst parts of it like the massacres and cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs might have been avoided.

[Exarch]

You realize of course....that India had nukes long before then right? What Bush did (and Obama has reinforced) is perfectly legal within the NPT.

you're missing my point; Bush Jr went against previous US policy to pressure India into joining the NPT by lifting an embargo on nuclear technology placed on India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (placed there at the behest of the US due to India's own nuclear test back in ths 70s when India was a close ally of the soviets). Former President Bill Clinton even placed an embargo on India for its 1998 nuclear test, which gives you an idea of the sort of attitude the Washington had towards India's nukes, and its decision not to ratify and sign the NPT.

By weakening the rules of the game (the NPT), so to speak, Bush Jr created loopholes that allowed for nuclear proliferation-something previous and successive administrations have attempted to prevent. If you want to be strict on the rules, you can't bend it for anyone.

Now looking at it from your favourite geopolitical perspective, and given India's ties and relations with Iran, how long do you suppose it'll be before nuclear technology and ICBM/MRBM technology starts filtering its way towards Iran? India certainly doesn't see Iran through the same lenses as NATO or Washington; what do you make of the Indian government providing anonymity to Indian businessmen doing business with Iran so as to prevent Washington from placing sanctions on their own businesses?

[Caelius]

you're missing my point; Bush Jr went against previous US policy to pressure India into joining the NPT by lifting an embargo on nuclear technology placed on India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (placed there at the behest of the US due to India's own nuclear test back in ths 70s when India was a close ally of the soviets). Former President Bill Clinton even placed an embargo on India for its 1998 nuclear test, which gives you an idea of the sort of attitude the Washington had towards India's nukes, and its decision not to ratify and sign the NPT.

M'eh...big whoop....things change.

Bush's move was part of a larger US diplomatic offensive at the time designed to "strategically decouple" India away from it's traditional power alignment (mainly Russia), with the aim of getting them more on the US' side.

Especially with concidental US and Indian interests involving Pakistan and Afghanistan and other parts of Central Asia in the Post 9/11 environment. Bush's reversal of previous US policy was one of many US overtures that played off rather well in other areas.

If you want to be strict on the rules, you can't bend it for anyone.

Of course you can. India isn't Iran. There were no NPT rules to be bent because the NPT never applied to them in the first place.

Now looking at it from your favourite geopolitical perspective, and given India's ties and relations with Iran, how long do you suppose it'll be before nuclear technology and ICBM/MRBM technology starts filtering its way towards Iran?

They already have it, so that's a moot point.

Successfully mating it to a viable design is another matter entirely however.

Any country that can put something into orbit already has the necessary know how and expertise to design IRBMs and ICBMs if they put enough work and effort into it.

India certainly doesn't see Iran through the same lenses as NATO or Washington

They can be made to if given the proper incentives on other matters that actually concern them. Something that the US has already done to it's benefit more than once.