12-05-2003, 06:58 AM
Anti war groups of Australia on their web site www.agitprop.org.au compiled a informative analysis regarding the current round of Indo-American relations in Asia.
âOnly the most naive would buy the idea -- advanced in the speeches of Indian and US leaders -- that the reason for the US's newfound interest is India's increased importance as a world power. India's economy is less than one-twentieth the size of the US's, and its entire Gross Domestic Product is just about the size of the US trade deficit. Its official military budget is $13 billion or so, compared to the US's $379 billion. The object of recent moves by the US is not Indo-US 'partnership', but advancing US interests, using India as a strategic pawn. In the words of US ambassador Robert Blackwill, "President Bush vigorously pursues strategic relations with India because a powerful India will advance American democratic values [sic] and vital US national interests in the decade ahead".
Jim Hoagland wrote in the Washington Post that "There is new thinking about nuclear doctrine, and India, at the White House. Bush intends to end the sanctions in a matter of months, according to aides, and wants a new strategic relationship with India." ("Rethinking Asia in India's Favour", 1/7/01)
In other words, the Indian nuclear program has become a part of the US strategic architecture for this region.
âThe integration of India into US military targeting of China will increase the risk of war for the Indian people, since China will surely respond by targeting India as the US's beachhead in the region. Against such a response by China, the Indian rulers -- for all their talk of being a 'major power' -- would simply seek refuge under the American umbrella. The Vajpayee government not only endorsed the US's widely condemned 'missile defense' programme, but is clearly hoping to be brought under its protection. Hoagland wrote in July 1991 that "China noticed Bush's unusually warm welcome of Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh for an Oval Office chat about missile defense in April. Since then, India has been more supportive of Bush's [missile defense] plans than all but one or two of America's European allies.... China, however, sees the Bush strategic defense plan as aimed specifically at neutralizing its small but growing nuclear arsenal. A significant warming of U.S.-Indian ties, powered by conceptual agreement on missile defense, could cause the Chinese to expand and accelerate their nuclear upgrades, to poke at India through help to Pakistan and take risks that have not been well calculated."
âIn the face of a US on the offensive, a US-India axis and a missile shield, China might follow the course similar to that followed by the USSR in the 1980s -- namely, building up a much larger force of nuclear missiles in order to penetrate the missile shield in different places, including over India. The Americans are well aware that such a programme would be enormously expensive, and would strain China's economic strength; indeed, that is one of their objectives. The Indian public, however, is unaware that it is being thrust into this dangerous strategic chess-game by its rulersâ. This game of artition will drain the Indian resources also to buy expensive military gadgets costing billions of dollars thus bringing the weapons making nations (US Britain, Russia, France Israel) come out of recession than developing Indian infrastructure and eventually plunging India in to a debt trap.
âOnly the most naive would buy the idea -- advanced in the speeches of Indian and US leaders -- that the reason for the US's newfound interest is India's increased importance as a world power. India's economy is less than one-twentieth the size of the US's, and its entire Gross Domestic Product is just about the size of the US trade deficit. Its official military budget is $13 billion or so, compared to the US's $379 billion. The object of recent moves by the US is not Indo-US 'partnership', but advancing US interests, using India as a strategic pawn. In the words of US ambassador Robert Blackwill, "President Bush vigorously pursues strategic relations with India because a powerful India will advance American democratic values [sic] and vital US national interests in the decade ahead".
Jim Hoagland wrote in the Washington Post that "There is new thinking about nuclear doctrine, and India, at the White House. Bush intends to end the sanctions in a matter of months, according to aides, and wants a new strategic relationship with India." ("Rethinking Asia in India's Favour", 1/7/01)
In other words, the Indian nuclear program has become a part of the US strategic architecture for this region.
âThe integration of India into US military targeting of China will increase the risk of war for the Indian people, since China will surely respond by targeting India as the US's beachhead in the region. Against such a response by China, the Indian rulers -- for all their talk of being a 'major power' -- would simply seek refuge under the American umbrella. The Vajpayee government not only endorsed the US's widely condemned 'missile defense' programme, but is clearly hoping to be brought under its protection. Hoagland wrote in July 1991 that "China noticed Bush's unusually warm welcome of Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh for an Oval Office chat about missile defense in April. Since then, India has been more supportive of Bush's [missile defense] plans than all but one or two of America's European allies.... China, however, sees the Bush strategic defense plan as aimed specifically at neutralizing its small but growing nuclear arsenal. A significant warming of U.S.-Indian ties, powered by conceptual agreement on missile defense, could cause the Chinese to expand and accelerate their nuclear upgrades, to poke at India through help to Pakistan and take risks that have not been well calculated."
âIn the face of a US on the offensive, a US-India axis and a missile shield, China might follow the course similar to that followed by the USSR in the 1980s -- namely, building up a much larger force of nuclear missiles in order to penetrate the missile shield in different places, including over India. The Americans are well aware that such a programme would be enormously expensive, and would strain China's economic strength; indeed, that is one of their objectives. The Indian public, however, is unaware that it is being thrust into this dangerous strategic chess-game by its rulersâ. This game of artition will drain the Indian resources also to buy expensive military gadgets costing billions of dollars thus bringing the weapons making nations (US Britain, Russia, France Israel) come out of recession than developing Indian infrastructure and eventually plunging India in to a debt trap.