Occidental Hustle

There are no holidays in the fight against evil
--Maxwell Smart (detective), Get Smart

Now it is not good for the Christian's health To hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles, And it weareth the Christian down.
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white With the name of the late deceased
-- And the epitaph drear: "A fool lies here Who tried to hustle the East."
--Naulahka, Rudyard Kipling,

When GWB signaled his nuclear deal with India, I figured the nuclear weapons programs of India would greatly benefit from this deal with America. Sure enough. The Justice department disclosed Monday an indictment brought against agencies of the Indian government, in which it is alleges

agencies of the Indian government participated in a conspiracy to sidestep United States export regulations and obtain secret weapons technology from American companies over several years. (''U.S. Cites Indian Government Agencies in Weapons Conspiracy,'' NYT)

My purpose is not exactly schadenfreude, but rather to tie this nuclear deal with India into my ''Black is Beautiful'' post on black ops.

America views itself as smooth operators, but India's actions in this affair are classic covert/black operations, with the exception that the Indians are not embarrassed nor will they be, unless Congress revisits this treaty or cuts off the flow of fissionable material.

It is interesting that the administration pressed Congress to approve the agreement at the same time that the Justice Department was investigating an alleged conspiracy involving Indian governmental officials.

They're flim-flamming us, and we're scamming them for bucks. In the meantime, the U.S. opposes Iranian nuclear development. I told you so.

This is also a classic example of the Kipling rejoinder that every time a round-eye tries to hustle the orient, it's the round-eye that gets the hustle.