Subcontinental Affairs

Looking at the newly minted deal with India involving the sale of nuclear components, I'm inclined to actually support it. If India is allowed to invest more money in a nuclear energy program, it could reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and still allow the country to provide energy for its 1.1 billion people. It will also allow the United States and India to strengthen economic ties and provide a joint foil for China, which neither country sees as an enemy but is considered by both as a tough competitor. There's no evidence that this could allow the spread of nuclear weapons, nor is their any evidence of India planning to escalate an arms race with arch-rival Pakistan.

Bush is in Pakistan now, of course, for talks with Pervez Musharraf, the country's military dictator. There is hope that Pakistan could become a more stable society, with its economy slowly growing, but many Pakistanis remain in poverty and are seeing little of the effects of Musharraf's economic reforms. Needless to say, the deal with India isn't being extended to Pakistan any time soon, but an alliance of some sort with Islamabad is necessary to wage the fight against al-Qaeda.

Musharraf is a paradoxical figure, ruling a socially fragile country with a strong hand while professing to establish a more stable, more egalitarian Pakistan. He seems to want to be a cross between Cincinnatus, the benevolent dictator who righted Rome before relinquishing power and returning to his farm, and Kamal Ataturk, the founder of the modern, secular Turkish state. Somehow, though, he seems to be falling rather short of the mark.