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GUEST ARTICLE

        Is there no one in the entire world to tell the United States that there has to be an end to brutality and double talk? And that no one believes it when it says that it is out to establish democracy in the world? For decades the US supported dictators in Latin America. For years its supported dictators in Pakistan. Even now it supports Pakistani dictatorship and turns a blind eye to what is going on there. In a recent report by Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon official who was required to submit his findings after a visit to Afghanistan, the insurgency in that country has been receiving military aid from 'a near sanctuary in Pakistan'. Cordesman pointly noted that from sanctuaries in western and southern Pakistan al Qaida and Taliban cadres are providing both financial and manpower support to insurgent groups in Afghanistan. That is only one aspect of Pakistani perfidy. A more dangerous aspect was released by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security early in January which noted that Pakistan is 'in advanced stage of building a second research reactor and a second reprocessing plant as part of its nuclear military programme. Pakistan, as is well-known, already has one reprocessing plant at PINSTECH to produce weapons-grade plutonium. What ISIS has discovered is the second plant at a place called Chasma.

        According to its nuclear affairs specialists David Albright and Paul Brennan, while it is not yet very clear whether the Chashma facility is operational, 'the nature and rate of the construction suggests that the facility may soon start operations, if it has not done so already'. Pakistan's first reserch reactor set up for making weapons-useable plutonium from its spent fuel is located at Khushab. According to senior US Administration officials, with the new facilities, Pakistan's capacity to produce weapons-grade plutonium will increase 'by leaps and bounds'. A report in The Pioneer (21 January) said that 'what should alert policy-makers in New Delhi is the fact such a capability, combined with Pakistan's ability to make large quantities of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons would aid Pakistan in developing theme-nuclear weapons as well as increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal'. Meanwhile, consider this: India has pledged to shut down by 2010 its Cirus research reactor located at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai.

        This decision was taken at the political level, despite the fact Cirus, operational since 1960, has been the most significant contributor to India's weapons-grade plutonium stockpile. Indian scientists are most perturbed. Are we selling our safety to the United States? What is shocking is that while Washington is turning a blind eye to what Islamabad is up to, it is planning to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities and reports suggest that 'there is a blizzard of signals that the assault could be unleashed as early as late February'. One sign is a statement made by President George Bush early in January that the US will 'seek out and destroy' forces inimical to the US in the Middle East, especially in Iraq. He did not mention Iran by name but Iranians are aware that they are soon going to be targeted. It was only a few weeks ago that an American investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh had warned that the use of 'bunker-busting' nukes against Iran was under active consideration in the Pentagon. Not so long ago The Times had stated that two Israeli air squadrons are currently training for the mission and 'if things go according to plan, a pilot will first launch a conventional laser-guided bomb to blow' an Iranian nuclear installation. The US, meanwhile, has already announced that it is moving a second aircraft carrier group to the Persian Gulf. A carrier group can unleash 85 strike aircraft and hundreds of cruise missiles at Iranian nuclear and other installations. According to Dr Tatiana Shaumian, director, Centre for Indian Studies in Moscow, 'an attack on Iran, whether by the US or Israel or both, threatens to destabilies the region, and perhaps the world.... A vast geopolitical disaster may be looming'. But does anyone care in Delhi? The US record of wholesale killing is unparallelled. Hitler would be admiring America were he alive now.

        A UN report said on 16 January that more than 34,000 Iraqis died due to violence in 2006, often being tortured. The report said that at least 34,452 Iraqis died in 2000 on an average or 94 deaths per day while another 36,685 persons were wounded in attacks around the country. The UN report said that between 1 November and 31 December alone, at least 6,376 civilians were killed and another 6,875 wounded across Iraq. 'Extra-judicial executions, rampant and indiscriminate killings of civilians went virtually unchecked', said the Report. The killings and reached a peak in October 2006 when 3,709 persons were killed.

        Thousands of Iraqis are leaving the country every day and nobody seems to care. It is well to remember that nobody cared either when Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State ordered carpet bombing of little Cambodia, a neutral country. The indiscriminate bombing went on for 14 months resulting in 600,000 recorded deaths. Kissinger kept that as a secret from the US Congress and people. And what had Cambodia done to the United States? What could it possibly have done to deserve the killings? The United States did not spare Vietnam either. According to Christian G Appy, author of Vietnam, the latest study on the country which the united States worked hard to destroy, 'every single day the sky was black with air craft bombing mostly innocent barefoot peasants'. Vietnam posed no threat to the US nor did Laos, but between 1956 and 1975 - a period nineteen years - more than a million Vietnamese were killed and even to this day almost an equal number continue to suffer from cancer linked to poison gas that was freely used against innocent Vietnamese. It was only after the US massacre of 500 villagers in My Lai that Americans came to understand the grim Hitlerite madness of their government. India is now planning a nuclear deal with the United States, even while Washington is looking the other way when Pakistan is seeking to add to its nuclear weaponry, on the grounds that America is a friend. History tells us that with a friend like the United States, India does not have to look for enemies.