It's not just Russia and China. India recently (i.e. last June) worked out The Deal with the US in which basically, 1) Indians will separate civil and military nuclear technology and allow the IAEA to inspect its civil nuclear technology and 2) US will provide civil nuclear technology and go to the NSG and get them also to sell civil nuclear technology to India.
India and Iran historically has a long tie w/ Iran. Second -only- to Iran, India has the second largest group of Shias in the world. India's government stays in power in a large part due to a combination of the Leftists and these Shias. At the same time that Bush was visiting India, India received an Iran warship in one of its major ports. India has military cooperative exercises with Iran and will continue to have them.
This deal is a Good Thing. It would set limitations on Indian military nuclear tech. and it would balance out China. It also keeps a stable democratic India in Asia, which is yet another Good Thing.
Bombing Iran will at the -very- least, incur a strong castigation from India. It will sour US-India relations, perhaps pushing India closer to both Iran -and- China. It may also kill the deal, which for reasons above will be a Bad Thing. You want India, esp. since India is one of the five great nations of the world and who -will- become a superpower - its considered to be on the same fast track as China -, to be inside the system, *not* outside the system. It would be the equivalent of China leaving the NPT system and continuing to build nuclear weapons without oversight, without inspection, basically as a rogue state.
For that matter, -where- are we getting the troops to invade Iran? South Korea? Japan? North Korea -has- nuclear weapons. Well, I guess we can say goodbye to South Korea then. For Japan, it's is one of the few states in the world who could become a nuclear state in basically 15 minutes. The -only- reason they don't is based on the strength of the US-Japan relationship and the fact that US can defend them. Pulling from Japan leaves the entire East Asia circle weak. According to a former officer in the SK army, the response plan to NK invading depended heavily on Japan reinforcements. A re-militarized -nuclear state- Japan is not going to do anything for the stability of the region. NK will be freaking out. Japan and China go into an arms race. It also leaves Taiwan dangerously undefended. Pulling from Hawaii (which seems to be more air carrier based) isn't going to help much either and also leaves the region dangerously undefended. This doesn't even consider that West Point graduated officers are leaving at the first chance possible at a extremely high rate. The rate of Captain rank retention's basically at an all time low. The US army is hemorhagging and already strained.
India and Iran historically has a long tie w/ Iran. Second -only- to Iran, India has the second largest group of Shias in the world. India's government stays in power in a large part due to a combination of the Leftists and these Shias. At the same time that Bush was visiting India, India received an Iran warship in one of its major ports. India has military cooperative exercises with Iran and will continue to have them.
This deal is a Good Thing. It would set limitations on Indian military nuclear tech. and it would balance out China. It also keeps a stable democratic India in Asia, which is yet another Good Thing.
Bombing Iran will at the -very- least, incur a strong castigation from India. It will sour US-India relations, perhaps pushing India closer to both Iran -and- China. It may also kill the deal, which for reasons above will be a Bad Thing. You want India, esp. since India is one of the five great nations of the world and who -will- become a superpower - its considered to be on the same fast track as China -, to be inside the system, *not* outside the system. It would be the equivalent of China leaving the NPT system and continuing to build nuclear weapons without oversight, without inspection, basically as a rogue state.
For that matter, -where- are we getting the troops to invade Iran? South Korea? Japan? North Korea -has- nuclear weapons. Well, I guess we can say goodbye to South Korea then. For Japan, it's is one of the few states in the world who could become a nuclear state in basically 15 minutes. The -only- reason they don't is based on the strength of the US-Japan relationship and the fact that US can defend them. Pulling from Japan leaves the entire East Asia circle weak. According to a former officer in the SK army, the response plan to NK invading depended heavily on Japan reinforcements. A re-militarized -nuclear state- Japan is not going to do anything for the stability of the region. NK will be freaking out. Japan and China go into an arms race. It also leaves Taiwan dangerously undefended. Pulling from Hawaii (which seems to be more air carrier based) isn't going to help much either and also leaves the region dangerously undefended. This doesn't even consider that West Point graduated officers are leaving at the first chance possible at a extremely high rate. The rate of Captain rank retention's basically at an all time low. The US army is hemorhagging and already strained.