Tulsa World: Obama's Nobel 'Devalues the award'
Editorial In The Tulsa World ~ Even among many of his friends and supporters, the reaction to Barack Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was one of stunned disbelief Friday.
Obama is a likable man and has done many good things, but what has he done to merit the premier international award for furthering peace?
He is, after all, the commander in chief of a nation that is at war in two different nations.
"So soon? Too early," said Lech Walesa, winner of the 1983 peace prize. "He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act."
We agree. In making the award, the peace prize committee said it was designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee.
We suspect there were other motivations. The international community has always been in love with Obama, and — American elections being restricted to U.S. citizens — this was the only time the committee members got a chance to vote for him.
It's also clearly a slap at Obama's predecessor: He got the award because he isn't George W. Bush.
Neither those reasons, nor the ones stated by the committee are sufficient to substantiate the decision. It devalues the award and, frankly, condescends to Obama.
Every balanced person on Earth hopes that Barrack Obama someday accomplishes enough to merit being included in the same breath with Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Schweitzer, George Marshall, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa.
There's plenty of peace out there for a U.S. president to achieve, but it would have been a good idea if the Nobel committee had waited for him to achieve some before they started throwing laurels his way.
Obama is a likable man and has done many good things, but what has he done to merit the premier international award for furthering peace?
He is, after all, the commander in chief of a nation that is at war in two different nations.
"So soon? Too early," said Lech Walesa, winner of the 1983 peace prize. "He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act."
We agree. In making the award, the peace prize committee said it was designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee.
We suspect there were other motivations. The international community has always been in love with Obama, and — American elections being restricted to U.S. citizens — this was the only time the committee members got a chance to vote for him.
It's also clearly a slap at Obama's predecessor: He got the award because he isn't George W. Bush.
Neither those reasons, nor the ones stated by the committee are sufficient to substantiate the decision. It devalues the award and, frankly, condescends to Obama.
Every balanced person on Earth hopes that Barrack Obama someday accomplishes enough to merit being included in the same breath with Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Schweitzer, George Marshall, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa.
There's plenty of peace out there for a U.S. president to achieve, but it would have been a good idea if the Nobel committee had waited for him to achieve some before they started throwing laurels his way.
Labels: Barack Obama, Tulsa World
posted by Mike McCarville @ 4:17 PM
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