I have to admit that the last piece of news I expected to wake up to this morning was that Obama would be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.\u00a0 This shock has nothing to do with my personal feelings for Obama, but rather with my obviously incorrect assumptions that the prize was actually somewhat difficult to win.\u00a0 Clearly, nothing about this award could be hailed an actual \u201caccomplishment\u201d by Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
The first and most ridiculous indication of this fact is that Obama was president of the US only two weeks before the deadline for the nomination of this year\u2019s prize.\u00a0 It is my understanding that his accomplishments up to that moment were the consideration for his winning of the prize.\u00a0 Perhaps this explains some things.<\/p>\n
One of the noted \u201caccomplishments\u201d of the then two-week-term president was his \u201cpledge\u201d to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms.\u00a0 While I have no reason to doubt that Obama\u2019s pledge is one of sincerity, it has thus far been little more than political speak.\u00a0 Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to \u201cwork out\u201d a reduction limit on nuclear warheads.\u00a0 They even discussed the numbers of such future <\/em>reductions.\u00a0 What they have not done, however, is to have stipulated nor spoken further about the actual dates<\/em> at which such reductions should take place.\u00a0 Their \u201ctalks\u201d have remained precisely that.\u00a0 The world\u2019s nuclear arsenal is not dwindling.\u00a0 In fact, all evidence suggests, it is instead most likely soon to be growing; right into the hands of murderous mad-men like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man Obama \u201ctalks\u201d about regularly.\u00a0 (Ahmadinejad, once enabled, will not talk<\/em> about his position; he will act.)\u00a0 But, apparently \u201ctalk\u201d is the substance of reward in the eyes of the Nobel committee.<\/p>\n Another noted reason for Obama\u2019s nomination and win is his work to ease conflict between America and Muslim nations.\u00a0 Of course, Obama pledged to end the Iraqi and Afghani conflicts.\u00a0 Since his pledge, ironically, an actual increase in US presence in those nations has occurred, including 21,000 additional troops in Afghanistan alone.<\/p>\n Personally, I\u2019m not in favor of reducing America\u2019s nuclear arms or<\/em> of getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq before the work in those regions which we began has been completed.\u00a0 Yet I am swooning from the presumption that Obama has actually done<\/em> anything concerning his promises \u2013 however ill-advised \u2013 on those matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Nobel Peace Prize, it seems, is about intentions rather than accomplishments.<\/p>\n A quote from the prize committee\u2019s announcement describes, \u201cOnly 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.\u201d\u00a0 Since when is the \u201ccapture (of the) world\u2019s attention\u201d tantamount to actual success<\/em> as it relates to the acquiring of peace?<\/p>\n Clearly, the Nobel Peace Prize fails to meet its charter, which was noted in the will of founder, Alfred Nobel.\u00a0 In his last testament he specified that the peace prize should be awarded \u201cto the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0<\/p>\n Clearly, no distinction is being made between one who \u201cshall have done the most or best work\u201d and one who shall \u201cexpressed the best intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n In all fairness, the Nobel Peace Prize committee has historically demonstrated an aptitude for \u201clack of forward vision.\u201d\u00a0 Among former nominees are Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, while Yasser Arafat actually won the award in 1994.\u00a0 Ironically, Mahatma Gandhi, though nominated five times, never won an award.<\/p>\n Perhaps it all makes more sense than we are admitting.<\/p>\n I have to admit that the last piece of news I expected to wake up to this morning was that Obama would be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.\u00a0 This shock has nothing to do with my personal feelings for Obama, but rather with my obviously incorrect assumptions that the prize was actually somewhat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,10,20],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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