Legitimate Proliferation

A tsunami of benign indifference blew up around India today as the former British possession test-fired a long-range, nuclear-capable missile to a deafening lack of righteous indignation from the non-pariah global community. The missile would be capable of reaching targets in China and Europe, and hence is not thought to pose a threat to the United States or Britain. This makes a stark contrast with North Korea, whose missiles have been known to fall into the Sea of Japan on their good days. Neither Daveybloke nor his new best chum, Barack Obama, had anything to say on this occasion about the perils of proliferation, possibly because India's nuclear capabilities have gained what Reuters describes as "de facto legitimacy", by virtue of being a US-sponsored fait accompli. The Heathen Chinee, on the other hand, noted that the free world had chosen to overlook India's "disregard of nuclear and missile control treaties". In fact, India has not signed the non-proliferation treaty, and therefore has a slightly better de jure case for disregarding it than certain other countries one could mention.