Nuclear War

Bush came to the the Riderwood Village retirement community last week in the DC suburbs to talk about medicare.

I am quoting below an enormous chunk of the transcript because it is incredible who was there, and their relationship to the history of global nuclear issues:

Bush worked the elderly crowd like a pro, and fielded nearly half an hour of genuine queries about the health care issues facing seniors, and then the following occured:


Q Mr. President, I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for your far-sighted policy in India, of assisting them in their civilian nuclear program.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, thank you, sir.

Q I was at Tarapur 40 years ago, when General Electric inaugurated the first nuclear plant in India. And I think it's going to go a long way towards keeping our friendship with that important country in Asia. Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for bringing that up. He's referring to a trip I just took to India and Pakistan and Afghanistan. And we were working on an agreement with India to encourage India and help India develop its civilian nuclear power industry. And one -- a couple of reasons why one would do that. One, when India's demand for fossil fuels goes up it causes the price of our fossil fuels to go up. And so, therefore, to encourage them to use a renewable source of energy that doesn't create greenhouse gas, this makes a lot of sense.

Secondly, India has been a -- is a non-proliferator, has proven to be a non-proliferator for the past 30 years. In other words, they've got a record, and in my judgment should cause the Congress to pass old law to treat them as a new partner. Thirdly, India wants to be a part of international agreements that will help deal with proliferation.

And so I thank you for your comments. I appreciate you saying that.

Yes, sir.

Q It was particularly courageous, in view of the fact that Pakistan is one of our allies in the war on terrorism, and of course, it's going to affect their attitude to some extent.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate you saying that. The good news is that, as I said in the speech there in India, we now -- I think Indians understand it's good for the United States to be friendly with Pakistan, and the Pakistanis understand it's good for the United States to be friendly with India -- which is, as you know, a change of kind of the relationship of the United States with those two countries.

I had a good visit with President Musharraf, who is dedicated to routing out al Qaeda if they hide in his country, and we really appreciate his dedication. And at the same time, he's dedicated toward advancing democracy. So it was a great visit. Thanks for bringing it up...


A little while later a different retiree spoke up:


Q Mr. President, there are some -- and I guess I would include myself -- who have different views about the Indian agreement, because they're concerned about the effect that the agreement will have on the capacity of India to stimulate its own production of nuclear weapons --

THE PRESIDENT: No, I understand.

Q -- by helping them. But I would go beyond that and ask you, while you're still President, to consider one aspect of this whole nuclear question. I guess I'm one of the three standing -- left standing Americans who helped -- who did the negotiation of the nonproliferation treaty. And the basic bargain there was that other countries would give up their nuclear weapons if we, the nuclear powers, would engage in a program of nuclear disarmament.

Now, I'm aware of all of the agreements that have taken place. I'm aware of the negotiations that you had with Mr. Putin. The point is that we cannot expect that agreement, that basic agreement to hold if the United States, particularly, goes on acting as -- and has the position that we might initiate a nuclear war if it is necessary.

And I would ask you just to think about the time -- while you're still President, taking the one position that only one American President has taken, and that is President Johnson, to consider a "no first-use" policy to help the prospect of nuclear proliferation in the long run.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for your contribution, by the way. I appreciate it. (Applause.)

Part of the Indian deal is to actually get them to formally join some of the institutions that you helped -- your work created. And you're right. I did do an agreement with President Putin -- thanks for noticing -- where we're -- both of us are reducing nuclear stockpiles. But I'll take your words to heart, and think about it. Thank you. No commitment standing right here, of course. (Laughter.) ....

And then there was a very pregnant pause...... after which Bush wrapped things up quickly, encouraging everyone to just give the contravesial new medicare system a closer look, and closing with a "God bless you all."