U.S. Tips Toward India And Away From Pakistan In Bush Visit

The decision by President Bush to enter into a nuclear deal with India and not with Pakistan represents a possibly historic tip in the relationship among the three countries, and one that possibly could have been more carefully debated.

It was clearly indicated well before Bush's arrival in the Subcontinent when India voted with the U.S. to refer the Iranian nuclear question to the UN Security Council. This would not have happened without an advance commitment to the Indians on the nuclear question.

The trouble is, this does not probably place Pakistan's nuclear weapons under any greater control, In fact, it may facilitate a greater chance that extreme Islamic forces will come to control nuclear weapons already belonging to Pakistan and that these might end up under Iranian control.

With seven visits to India and friends there, I have always favored closer ties to India than Pakistan, but not necessarily on the nuclear question.

Already, there are suggestions that the US-India nuclear agreement may be pointed more against China than against Pakistan, as China gains world power. But in India itself it will be viewed as a step by the U.S. against Pakistan.

This may live with us a long time and carry multiple eisadvantages. And it comes at a time when the Iranians are reported to be having difficulty with the process of acquiring nuclear weapons.

Keeping nukes out of extreme Islamic hands is fundamental to Western security. This appears on its face another Bush macho decision.