Bush's nuclear hypocrisy: if the next administration wants to be seen as serious about nonproliferation, it'll have to undo a lot of Bush administration practices.(Opinions)

IT IS IRONIC AND HYPOCRITICAL. THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has condemned both North Korea and Iran for their apparent efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Bush administration itself is undermining the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.

The heart of the regime is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). One of its main provisions is the promise by the nuclear weapon states, including the United States, to move toward nuclear disarmament. In return for that promise, the non-nuclear weapon states have pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons.

Last year, however, the Bush administration scrapped the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, one of the pillars of the international nonproliferation regime, in order to free the United States from the treaty's restraints on the construction of a national missile defense system. In doing so, the administration argued that the ABM Treaty no longer served America's national interest--the same "national interest" language North Korea used to justify its withdrawal from the NPT last January.

But the Bush administration has been no friend of the NPT either. It has …