Significantly improved ties are being forged without having to relax existing rules to prevent proliferation. So why has the administration proposed to weaken these rules?
The signal is that we want to change the rules of the game. Other nuclear suppliers will be very free to reinterpret the rules as they like in subsequent cases.
This is an awkward moment, to say the least, for the Bush administration to set a high priority to relax these rules in favor of India.
A country-specific exemption that relaxes consensus-based rules of nuclear commerce is the wrong way to bring India inside the tent. Country-specific exemptions for friends do real damage to the standards we seek to impose on troublemakers.