I hate to have to do this, but I have to come at an issue from the opponents point of view. As Desperado told you this morning, President Obama won the Nobel Peace prize. Don't get me wrong, I am generally behind Obama's efforts to use diplomacy more than the way of the gun. I think he has had some achievements in his short time, but most of them are on the level of promise (like closing down Gitmo).
Some of the comments on Desperado's piece have outlined some of the accomplishments he has had. In general, we are winding down in Iraq and he was very helpful with Iran. The problem is that he hasn't accomplished all that he set out to accomplish. This is just one man's opinion, but the Nobel Peace Prize used to be reserved for significant achievements (of which he has had none yet) and career achievement awards (mostly for national leaders). We hope Obama has seven plus years left of that too.
The same thought occurred to me when Al Gore won his Nobel Peace prize. His film was nice, but I'm not sure how it related to peace. Usually, conservatives' arguments amount to throwing darts in the dark, but once in a blue moon they hit the bulls eye. In that case and in this case some are claiming that this is more about getting back at George W. Bush for being a foreign policy disaster than necessarily anything truly significant that Gore or Obama did. Unfortunately, the international community could give a hoot about U.S. politics, but this award has likely done more harm than good.
I know some people who love to talk about the "love affair" between the international community and Obama. They say this as if it is a bad thing. I've always been more in favor of working well with others, but they want the U.S. to lone wolf it. Bush was the ultimate lone wolf and that is why these people love him. The more countries in Europe and the Middle East badmouth the U.S. the more they pound themselves on the chest. This award just adds more fuel to the fire. So, I offer the following alternative for the folks on the Nobel committee.
Invite George W. Bush to the 2010 ceremony and give him the Nobel Prize for War Mongering and Human Depravity. Call it a lifetime achievement award well earned after fighting a war of choice on false pretenses, torturing would be terror suspects against Geneva convention rules, and hiring incompetent subordinates who let people nearly drown following a hurricane in his own country. That would be more appropriate and would take care of what the international community is trying to say with awards for both Gore and Obama.
To borrow a sports analogy, when I coached volleyball I once had a setter that was so horrible that my team actually performed better without her. This doesn't mean that the player who replaced her was brilliant or that you should play volleyball without a setter. The absence of suckage doesn't equal greatness. It just means that you rid yourselves of the suckage. If you cornered Obama I'm sure he would agree that he hasn't earned this award yet. He is well on his way and if he makes the right call in Afghanistan he really will have earned it. If conservatives were being fair they would realize he didn't ask for this award, but when have they ever been fair?
here is a better quote from yesterdays rebroadcast of a "peace" speech, from his holiness, the dalai lama,:
"although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, this the only way. wherever i go, i express this, and i am encouraged that people from many different walks of life receive it well. peace must first be developed within an individual. and i believe that love, compassion, and altruism are the fundamental basis for peace. once the these qualities are developed within an individual, he or she is then able to create an atmosphere of peace and harmony. this atmosphere can be expanded and extended from the individual to his family, from the family to the community and eventually to the whole world. peace is in every step of the journey, mindfulness and awareness of the small acts of our daily lives, show us the benefit of mindfulness and concentration to transform and heal difficult psychological states and differences. the connection between personal peace and peace on earth is thus established. and this connection will change through individual lives the life of our global society. peace is in every step, it turns the endless path to joy".
all that's left for me to say is, amen. and peace, from me to you.
Yin and yang I suppose
Magic, well said. Peace is a "nuance", and Obama has captured it.
Scott, I disagree that all Al Gore did was "make a good movie". He has researched and worked on this issue since he was in college. And the end of war has no reference if the world is void of people.
Pres. Obama, in his work with the poor, has 'gotten it' since HE was in college. For him then, making a difference was worth more than making money... a far cry from the people who criticize his award.
Yeah, I can see how the conservatives would interpret his three miracles. Something about teleporting from Kenya to Hawaii.
Well, if you just gotta be negative, I just gotta take the opposition stance :O)
Some people inspire peace by their very presence. I want to nominate Obama for sainthood, perhaps prematurely but time is an illusion, so I say we do it now.
It could happen!
(Strike the word "so" from my last sentence. I was in a hurry and didn't proofread before I submitted. Lesson learned.)
Scott, I understand your "grandmother's old poodle" analogy as it pertains to this topic. However, the difference between your grandmother's old poodle and the Rabid Right is that because the Rabid Right NEVER sleeps, so it can't BE awakened.
today i watched a program with the dahli lama giving a speech for a human rights foundation. one thing he said about america probably also explains the nobel award. he said as a child, in his country the word "american" was accepted and understood as a idealistic peace and harmony beings. he next said that changed at another time, which brought him sorrow. he finished the speech by telling those in the room that with our new "leader" the word american will once again be restored to mean what it used to. this was a rebroadcast on cspan from tuesday so it was before the prize was awarded. but since this great holy leader has a good pulse on the peace-o-meter of the world, the prize makes sense to me now more than it did yesterday.
I suspect that Gore's al Baradi's and now Obama's Nobels would have been obviated if only Bush could be tried and, if convicted, incarcerated for war crimes before the International Criminal Court. Well, maybe Gore would've got his anyway. Bush was _such_ an unmitigated disaster for the world community, and there are so few official ways for the world to demonstrate their horror and disgust.
Great analogy, Scott!
Fundamentally, I compare the right to my grandmother's old poodle. I've never been in favor of harming an animal, but there were times I wanted to shoot that dog. It never shut up. Whether you were sitting, standing, talking, or even sleeping it just wouldn't shut up. So when the dog was asleep you wanted nothing to wake it up. Even if someone had a legitimate reason to knock on the door it would still piss you off because that dog would never shut up. So, the Nobel prize contingent can't worry about our proverbial poodle. They have to conduct business as usual. However, I am irritated because they woke up the damn poodle.
(everyone has points, ideas and opinions. even the 912 dummies have #8 stating it is not "un-american" to state a point. but people of higher level thinking should take a minute, investigate the nobel prize using the standard what,when,who,why, and how? this method we teach our own children, and to apply it to problem solving. sounds simplistic but in a twitter society, perhaps more difficult than it used to be. my youngest son did this yesterday in his class, the teacher had each student spend an hour with the method in order to prepare for an in-class essay on monday, using the example of our president winning the prize. parents were also cc'd on their child's "congrats email", and any parent could opt their kid out by text mssg. i have decided that my youngest son says it for me, less complicated than i've been thinking. so i share this with you, as a down payment on a future of peace, because perhaps our children get it.
Dear President Obama,
Mr. Nobel created a weapon of mass destruction, dynamite. To make up for this and have his name remembered not for violence but for peace, the Nobel Peace Prize was created. "Peace on Earth" are words Americans take for granted, like on Christmas cards. But peace begins with diplomacy, and diplomacy to other nations is what America has been missing. And you deserve this, don't ever say you don't. Modesty is good, but now you are challenged with the task of making the word "American" match with the words diplomat, peacemaker and peacekeeper. I have faith in your abilities, support you in your efforts. I wish to congratulate you on this. I feel like this award to you is also an award to me as an American. You now must live up to the promises of peace you were elected for.
OK, we were all stunned by the award. But, let's be fair: Pres. Obama did not apply for it; he did not campaign for it. We don't even know who nominated him.
It is what it is.
He was appropriately gracious and humble. And classy.
Too bad so many Republicans don't understand that.
I think Obama did come out and make an argument that he felt he did not quite deserve the award and the honor it bestows. The expectations are now higher for the president to live up to his promises. We all support those, the proof being he was elected by a large margin. I have just come to accept the fact that no matter what the president does or does not do, the republicans will be against it. They are drowning and grabbing at straws.
My fear is that there are now expectations so high that no one could achieve them (not even our Messiah!)
Scott, I must agree with many of your points in your blog. I do think, with all due respect to President Obama, that the award was premature.
IMO, the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded for what you have accomplished to date, not for what many hope that you will accomplish.