Fake Cowboy Meets Real Indians

The President has arrived to as warm a welcome as possible in New Delhi, India; Prime Minister Singh went to the airport himself to greet him. One of the joys of blogging and the internet is the immediate availability of foreign sources; in this case, the Hindustan Times, the sidebar’s entry from India, has extensive coverage on the visit, and notes that one of the key issues is a civilian nuclear power cooperation agreement between the United States and India. Who knew? As India already has nuclear weapons, this is sort of the same order the United States developed nuclear power: bombs first, powering toasters… second. So, there you go.
A fuller explanation of the nuclear deal is contained in this from Dawn, our sidebar’s entry from Pakistan. The agreement is that India will get American cooperation, and India wil separate its civilian program from its military program, and submit to the IAEA regulation and inspection regime, and tacitly, receive acknowledgment as one of the world’s nuclear powers.
The good news for the President about this visit to India is that he has found a country where he will be warmly welcomed (possibly, because he hasn’t ordered the willy nilly bombing of its houses.)
We’ll see what transpires in a few days when the President visits Pakistan. It might be a little different. We’ll see…
Update: It seems that the nuclear deal with India is a done deal. I spoke too soon re: Pakistan, as an explosion near the U.S. Consulate in Karachi killed at least four people, including an American foreign service officer. The President still plans on going forward with his visit to Pakistan, but this is surely a troubling development.