Age bin

In today’s Age David Medcalf suggests that it might be OK to sell uranium to India if we require them to sign up to “a strictly defensive nuclear posture based on no first use”. I’m not actually in favour of shipping potential explosives into what is still a war zone, but I must say that the Indians could quite rightly accuse us of hypocrisy if we put caveats on their shipments that we don’t apply to our other favoured clients. The USA has always been absolutely forthright that it reserves the right to first use, and we don’t seem to mind a bit. Indeed, the Republican presidential candidates are currently competing with each other to be the most enthusiastic about using nuclear weapons on Iran, and even the Democrats are debating the merits of using nuclear weapons against Bin Laden’s bases in Pakistan. If the US can bomb Pakistan without Australian objecting, India might reasonably ask, why can’t we?