The African World

Did You Notice That India Just Launched a New Missile?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. - BlackCommentator.com Editorial
Board
BC
April 26, 2012

http://www.blackcommentator.com/469/469_aw_india.php

Did India just launch a new ballistic missile? A
launch, by the way, which received very little
international attention and concern and from a country
that is a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty.

And was it me or did North Korea just attempt to launch
a new missile which they claimed was for peaceful
purposes but the USA and other countries of the global
North suggested was for military purposes? Did you
notice how it appeared that the USA was preparing for
war and they certainly took the step of shutting off
aid? Oh, and while I am at it, what about Iran, which
is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
but is under economic and terrorist assault from the
USA and Israel for allegedly intending to create
nuclear weapons?

The hypocrisy around missiles and nuclear weapons is
frightening. India and Pakistan have both been allowed
into the club of nuclear powers and at the same time
permitted to not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. Israel, by the way, is another such nuclear
power (that has not signed the Treaty). So, these
countries can play nuclear Russian roulette, yet the
USA sits back, acting as if everything is normal. This,
despite the fact - at least with India - that the
ramifications of their missile launch could heighten
tensions with nuclear-armed China.

As someone on the Left, it gets a bit tiring pointing
out the self-serving hypocrisy of the US empire. Yet it
is not only a necessity, but something that needs to be
accompanied by constructive, anti-militarist and anti-
imperialist actions. Unfortunately when countries such
as India, Pakistan and Israel get away with either
flaunting their nuclear capability or offering implied
threats (as does Israel, which refuses to acknowledge
its possession of nuclear weapons), there are important
ramifications.

The first is that it actually ends up in the interests
of non-nuclear powers to secure nuclear weapons (and
the delivery systems necessary in order to make them
operational). Each time the USA or its allies threaten
countries that may or may not possess nuclear weapons
or the intent to build them, they actually create an
amazing incentive for said countries to create them.

The second ramification is the obvious danger that the
weapons will be used. Each time India and Pakistan find
themselves on the brink of conflict, the world stops
breathing for a moment. A nuclear mistake between these
two countries will allow little time to be corrected.
The capitols of both countries could find themselves
turned to dust in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange.
The impact on the rest of the world, of course, is
unknowable, though radiation clouds plus further
climate change is most likely.

The conclusion from this is the further need for a
galvanized and re-directed anti-war movement. The USA
is in no position to suggest that other countries step
back from the brink when it is the USA that is capable
of wiping out the world several times over. Therefore,
genuine disarmament needs to become a real mass issue,
as it has at various points in the last 40+ years.

It is also the case that anti-war activists must push
for steps against states that fail to sign the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, such as India, Pakistan and
Israel. If the USA wishes to suggest that nuclear
weapons and delivery systems in the hands of the
Iranian theocracy are unacceptable, why is this not the
case with India, which has a crypto-fascist Hindu
political movement that worships nuclear weapons (and
has been in power), or Pakistan which has a military
that is nearly out of control and has regional
aspirations for hegemony? And, needless to say, what
about Israel, the sole nuclear power in the Middle
East, with more than one hundred nuclear weapons and
which occupies territory not its own? The only way this
situation changes is with a mass movement that insists
political figures and governments act with some degree
of consistency. I know that is asking a lot.

The irony of all of this is something that sections of
the US military seem to understand: the allies of the
US today can find themselves in a contentious
relationship with the USA tomorrow. Any power that
worships nuclear weapons or feels that its very
existence is so threatened that nuclear weapons are the
only answer is a power that can very easily push the
button.and let the consequences be damned.
___________

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Bill
Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute
for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of
TransAfricaForum and co-author of Solidarity Divided:
The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward
Social Justice (University of California Press), which
examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA.

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