Nobel Prize: Placing a Wager on Peace

President Obama's Suprising Nobel Peace Prize Honor A Reflection of Optimism, Not Accomplishment

(CBS)  The Nobel Peace Prize is generally given as a reward for achieving a major goal. This year’s award falls in the category of placing a bet on a more peaceful future. Chalk one up for optimism.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to President Barack Obama, as the committee noted in its statement, said that the president "captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future."

In a statement he made in the White House Rose Garden, the president said he was "both surprised and deeply humbled" to be so honored but considered it not "recognition of my own accomplishments" so much as for the goals he has put forward.

As far back as the campaign for the presidency many abroad and especially in Europe openly displayed a fondness both for Barack Obama the man and his policies. It is no secret that officials of many governments around the world considered him a breath of fresh air after eight years of dealing with President George W. Bush.

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As much as the committee clearly likes Mr. Obama’s style, his rhetoric and at least the promise of his ideas, what is also apparent from the announcement is just how much the policies and persona of Mr. Bush grated on many in the international arena. It is all the more glaring because the nomination for the award had to be made less than a month after Mr. Obama’s inauguration, before he launched many of his initiatives.

"Obama has created a new climate in international politics, "the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. It praised the new American leader for his willingness to use multilateral diplomacy including the United Nations and it highlighted the emphasis he has placed on disarmament. A "constructive" role on climate change was mentioned.

It is a fact that the Obama administration has changed the way America is viewed in many foreign capitals. Moscow is happy Washington has moved away from the missile defense system of the previous administration and is now in negotiations over the future of nuclear stockpiles. The Arab and Muslim world is pleased with overtures made by the new president in their direction. Efforts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians were placed high on the agenda from the first week of the administration and there is a new diplomatic initiative to get Iran to back away from its nuclear ambitions.

Notwithstanding the honor of the award, however, not all is so rosy. Mr. Obama is weighing a decision to send more U.S. troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and he is beset with a troubled economic picture at home. There is also an ongoing battle over the future of health care legislation which has huge implications on the domestic political agenda.

Upon hearing the announcement the Republican National Committee’s Chairman, Michael Steele, said "The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ No one should be looking for this to heal an already gaping partisan divide.

"The prize signals that America is definitively back in the world’s good graces and the President deserves full credit for that," wrote Martin Indyk, the Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. "Now comes the hard part: turning goodwill into concrete results that can heal wounds of a very troubled world. If Obama can do that he’ll deserve another Nobel."

For now the best thing President Obama can do is "pocket" the award, even if he does it with a look of surprise on his face, and keep pressing to complete the initiatives he’s already launched.

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What's your opinion? Charles Wolfson welcomes comments from readers of Diplomatic Dispatch and can be reached at [e-mail].

[Virgil-1]

Do you think this prise will stimulate him?

[repub2012]

What a joke Obama is. An articulate, smooth talking, left wing lib with nothing good on his mind except for his legacy and he has been in office only one year! All he cares about is pet project, universal healthcare. A farce that will lead this country into the likes of the medical systems in the socialized world. Inefficient, costly, rationing and long waits. He needs to move to france or canada. Blah!

[sopheapang]

People shouldn't make a big deal about this Nobel Peace Award awarded to Obama. Twenty years ago, they awarded it to a self-proclaimed reincarnated Tibetan parasite Dalie Lama who happens to be a CIA employee employed to carry out subversions against China.

[Jeromiaht]

EPIC FAILURE! How could we let Obama get this?

[skunk_monkey]

Its just because he is black lol. The international community clearly thinks they have lower standard, everyone here knows that had the president been white he wouldnt have got it :)

[dfnj2009]

Have you heard the good news! God is now using his omnipotent powers of love and forgiveness to let everyone through the gates of heaven no matter what our earthly sins may be. God is truly the greatest of all possible Gods! All are forgiven. You don't have to buy absolution from the Church. Everyone gets to commune with God in everlasting bliss. God is TRULY great!

Stop idolizing the words of the Bible. Jesus is a false idol. The love of Jesus is conditional. My God is more powerful than your Jesus! Don't believe me then my faith in God's infinite love and forgiveness is STRONGER than yours!!

[Massachusetts_4U]

The same day President Obama received the nobel peace prize he launched a full scale nuclear missile attack on the Lunar surface. He also receives praise from his supporters because he speaks as if he cares for the environment and planet imagine the irony without any debate or allowing others to know in advance because of fear the environmentalist and other M.I.T. scientists as well as others world wide would citizen the action as unneeded, not necessary, environmental wrong it pollutes and disrupts with harmful effects a place undisturbed since the beginning of time itself, it is morally ( for those that have morals) and ethically wrong as well as inconsistent with everything we believe in. Imagine Gene Roddenberry's famous Start Trek saying == That we are on a peacefully 5 year mission to explore strange new planets and universes and boldly go where no man has gone before. ==== Peacefully and boldly === do not mean firing missiles at the planets is peaceful, it interferes withe Gene Roddenberry's so called "Prime Objective Orders from Star Fleet" that under no circumstances can we do anything to interfere with a planet or culture --- we must only watch them.
President Obama also wants to increase by 45,0000 and more weapons the conflict in Afghanistan. --- He continually states he is the only President to ever so called "Inherit Two Wars"=== in actuality this is a false and misleading statement ==== World War 2 --- was fought by the U.S.A. in every European Country and in every SouthEast Asia Country --- However it is all rounded up into one WAR - world war 2 === instead of saying each country is it's own war --- if they did that then we fought 300 wars at once ---- the President that fought 300 wars at once he would have to say is FDR and Truman, Lincoln Fought the civil and Indian wars thus he fought 299 wars. President Obama who said he would end the war he is currently fighting and gets a peace prize -- has done absolutely nothing in the eyes of his country to make good on that statement --- he has been in office for a long time now he should try t recognize that at some point before he leaves. It takes two minutes to end that war and anyone familiar with it and Presidents of America's past know it does and Presidents of the past have done it in two minutes -- without running around waving flag over his head to obtain attention for something he has never done yet ---Mr. Obama should get off the couch and do it, it should have been done by Know . Then the people that praise him they feel he is god no matter he does or says ---he has not come through on a single campaign promise yet ---- his economic stimulus package is anything , but it is more of a fleecing of the American taxpayers, it's totally mis spent and a shell game of unaccountability. The bailing out of the stock market violates free enterprise and the everyone of the ideals that made America great --- why should citizens who din't own stock , or in business for themselves without stockholders be placed in a position where the government sticks it's hands in their front pockets takes their money and does what it wants with it -- they constitution doesn't allow it but it's happening with Obama -- he has no traditional American Values --- he doesn't even have an AMerican Birth Certificate type in on the web search bar and read what people are saying --type " Obama no birth certificate or Birth Certificate Obama Forgery"

[BuddyBeanbags]

forgot to take your pills today, heh?

[steve8313]

Do a lot of drugs?

[IndependantObserver]

OK no more ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, racist, biggoted, or haatefull talk... Remember the golden rule...AND THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOLD!

[IndependantObserver]

Get off your damned soapboxes, and start do to something POSSITIVE for a change! Be HAPPY that you have a president that the world likes and has had a GREAT HONOR bestowed upon him and YOU! It is far easier to tear something down than to build something. And it takes more people to build something good than to destroy it! When you tear down my president, you tear me down too...and in the process you tear down yourself.

[ToolMangler1]

Well Said, and true!!!!

[shylove2]

As a matter of fact and as a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner it should be encumbent upon our President Barack Obama to signify solidarity in the cause of Peace by at least meeting briefly with the Dalai Lama who I believe is visiting Washington at this time!

And Jimmy Carter and Al Gore must be there too!! and why not gather all the rest that are lounging around and Obama can pronounce that we as a country are renouncing revenge and retaliation as an instrument of foreign policy from now on...


Rrgarding Tibet it is imperative to have Tibet as the traditional autonomous buffer between China and India... as a peaceful region without pesky British and CIA agents this time..



http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/10/stories/2009101054450800.htm

[10th_MTN_DIV_Vet]

What a friggin' joke! I seriously thought it was April 1st this morning...

What in the H*LL has this man done to deserve it?!? Let's see... Anything growing up? No, that can't be it... His term in the Illinois senate? No, just another politician... His 3 years in the Senate? Nope, half of that was spent on the campaign trail... 9 months as president? H*ll no, and absolutely not...

What has he done that puts him in the same category as MOTHER TERESA??? Anyone?

The Nobel Peace Prize has now officially lost any credibility and/or the meaning it once had... If they gave it to him for what he says he's going to do, well, we all know how that will turn out. I'm not bashing President Obama here, just the people who voted for him to win the Prize... Has the world turned into such a bad place that he was the only one that deserved it?!?

Obama's accomplishments are as equal to humanitarians from the likes of the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, and the great Martin Luther King, Jr.?!? I can't believe it...

[steve8313]

He voted against a war that was cooked up by George Bush and was totaly unnessisary that has, to date, cost an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 deaths and a cost of $700,777,878,183.00. What have you done?

[noloyalisti]

I think this is just a statement of the world to the US and the world about how violently bad and criminal the Bush Crime Family was. Those neo cons would have been more than happy to be the cause of the next world war. It only take a few mindless, greedy, right wing radicals like them to destabilize the world. Obama brings hope and relief to save the planet.

[sjc_1]

It is better than Bush telling the Israelis that they can do whatever they want to the Palestinians and he would do nothing about it. Or telling Israel to go after the people to the north and he would do nothing about it. Or goading the Georgians to provoke the Russians and then claim we had nothing to do with it.