INDIA TELLS THE US TO BACK OFF....

A few days ago, just before Iranian President Ahmadinejad was due to visit India, the US instructed India to remind Ahmadinejad of the Security Council's concerns about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions. The Indian reaction was swift and blunt.

India told the US it did not 'need guidance' from the US on matters of foreign policy, and that it pursued its own foreign policy. Some of this was driven by internal politics of course - the Indian government is a coalition including the leftist CPM party, which (justifiably) despises the US's actions in Iraq and other places.

But the sharp rejoinder should inform the US that it cannot dictate to the rest of the world - even if it succeeded in setting up Saddam Hussein in 1991, then used his resulting 'pariah' status to criminally invade and occupy Iraq in 2003. Its policies are hated in many parts of the world, and its ability to 'bribe and bully' nations into toeing its nakedly imperialist neo-colonial and neo-liberal line is limited to tiny nations, excepting similarly crooked ones like the UK.

Other factors are at work as well of course. The US's hatred of Iran flows principally from Iran's rejection of US intimidation, and also Iran's preference to sell its oil for euros, not the declining US dollars. India also is negotiating an oil pipeline with Iran, to pass through Pakistan and Afghanistan....even the tiny island of Sri Lanka, which has much to fear from the US, has maintained its relations with Iran, because of the oil connection...

Inside the bizarre bubble of the North American media of course, the US is the world's cradle of 'democracy'. They rightly criticise China for its occupation of Tibet, but cannot bring themselves to slam the US and UK for the similarly criminal occupation of Iraq, nor condemn equally criminal plans against Iran.