Rethinking nuclear power

The decision in July 2005 to resume civilian nuclear cooperation with India is not the only controversial atomic...

The decision in July 2005 to resume civilian nuclear cooperation with India is not the only controversial atomic decision made by President George W. Bush during his tenure at the White House. At about the same time, Bush also reversed more than three decades of American opposition to expanding the domestic use of nuclear electric power.

With energy policy becoming a hot button issue amidst sky-rocketing oil prices, the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, has been quick to endorse nuclear energy. McCain talked about building nearly 100 nuclear power plants in the US over the next two decades. McCain argues “civilian nuclear power provides a way for the United States and other responsible nations to achieve energy independence and reduce our dependence on foreign oil and gas.”

The Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama, responded rather cautiously. Obama said that nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases and therefore the United States should invest research dollars into its safe use. But he also added, “I don’t think that nuclear power is a panacea.” The second part of Obama’s formulation underlines the continuing political ambivalence within the Democratic party about nuclear power. The first part is a bow to the current political difficulty in standing up against alternative energy sources.

Pakistan play-book

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For decades now, the Republican machine could easily destroy Democratic candidates by painting them as weak on national security. Obama, however, refuses to duck. Instead, he has used Bush’s embrace of Pakistan and neglect of Afghanistan to turn the argument against the Republicans.

“We should finish the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban instead of going into Iraq. We need to take more resources and put them in Afghanistan”, Obama declared last week. “I’ve repeatedly challenged George Bush and John McCain’s refusal to hold the Pakistani government accountable for inability to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taliban operating within their borders. We are not going to get Afghanistan right until we get our Pakistan policy right,” he added.

Last year, Obama courted controversy when he promised to bomb al-Qaeda bases in Pakistan, if Islamabad refused to cooperate. Since then, the McCain campaign has been using this statement to attack Obama’s alleged naiveté in wanting to attack an ally in the war on terror. Obama hit back by saying the Republicans were afraid of taking action against Pakistan.

McCain’s adviser on national security, Randy Scheunemann, clarified last week that his boss was not against US attacks on Pakistan but only against loose talk in public. Scheunemann said, American unilateral actions “are necessary and appropriate and Senator McCain has supported them. But what is reckless is to talk about it in public when, in fact, it gravely complicates our ability to cooperate with Pakistani authorities”.

Obama on Osama

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As the two parties spar over the war on terror, all the old questions on 9/11 have returned centre-stage. While the Republicans accuse Obama of being stuck with a “September 10 mindset”, the Democratic presidential nominee will have none of it. “I refuse to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States.”

“Osama bin Laden and his top leadership — the people who murdered 3,000 Americans have a safe haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world. That’s the result of the Bush-McCain approach to the war on terrorism,” Obama said in his counter punch.

While remaining deliberately vague on how exactly he might bring Osama to justice, Obama insists he will not make a hero out of bin Laden. “What would be important would be for us to do it in a way that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he’s engaged in and not to make him into a martyr, and to assure that the United States government is abiding by basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism,” he said. As Obama finds the right lines that appeal to American common sense, the Republicans are finding it increasingly difficult to find chinks in the senator’s national security armour.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg