Bush’s public slap in the face to Pakistan’s president

In contrast to India where Bush signed a raft of wide-ranging deals, the US president issued a rather routine joint statement with Musharraf that offered the Pakistani regime little in return for its support for Washington’s “war on terror,” particularly the US occupation of Afghanistan. At their joint press conference last Saturday, Bush made it abundantly clear that Musharraf could only expect further US assistance if he continued to do Washington’s bidding.

The Pakistani ruling elite was particularly concerned about the nuclear deal between the US and India agreed just days before in New Delhi. Both Pakistan and India have refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Each tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and confronted sanctions as a result. Yet, India has been offered a unique arrangement by the US to assist its civilian nuclear program without having to sign the NPT or abandon its military nuclear program.

The obvious question in Islamabad is: why has not Pakistan, which the US has declared “a major non-NATO” ally, been offered the same deal? The unpalatable answer is: Washington, which signed an agreement with India as the price of a close strategic relationship, sees no need to make a similar offer to Pakistan, given Musharraf’s political and economic dependence on the US.

The relationship was evident at the joint press conference. Bush condescendingly described Musharraf as “a man of courage and vision” and declared that the two men had “revived and maybe further strengthened this relationship,” forged after the September 11 attacks on the US. But when asked about India’s nuclear deal, Bush did nothing to soften the blow. “I explained,” the US president said, “that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories.”

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/paki-m11.shtml