Senator Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan early Saturday morning, opening his first overseas trip as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to meet with American commanders there, and later in Iraq, to receive an on-the-ground assessment of military operations in the two major U.S. war zones

A little belatedly, but with no less puzzlement than we felt when we originally heard the remark, we had to put on record in our blog Senator John S. McCain’s rather puzzling rant about military policy, delivered at a town hall meeting in Albuquerque, NM, this week

While the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power. Sen. John McCain has called for 100 new nuclear power plants. Sen. Barack Obama, in a July 2007 Democratic candidate debate, answered a pro-nuclear power audience member, ''I actually think that we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix.'' Among Obama's top contributors are executives of Exelon Corp., a leading nuclear power operator in the nation. Just this week, Exelon released a new plan, called ''Exelon 2020: A Low-Carbon Roadmap.'' The nuclear power industry sees global warming as a golden opportunity to sell its insanely expensive and dangerous power plants. But nuclear power is not a solution to climate change - rather, it causes problems. Amory Lovins is the co-founder and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado. He makes simple, powerful points against nuclear: ''The nuclear revival that we often hear about is not actually happening. It is a very carefully fabricated illusion . . . there are no buyers. Wall Street is not putting a penny of private capital into the industry, despite 100-plus percent subsidies.'' He adds: ''Basically, we can have as many nuclear plants as Congress can force the taxpayers to pay for. But you won't get any in a market economy.''