This past Friday, President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the peace prize, In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt won the prize, and in 1919 President Woodrow Wilson won the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee says that the Nobel Peace Prize was developed in part to encourage ongoing peace projects. President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to build support for his promises to "reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism". Many people around the world have argued that it seems too early to be giving President Obama this award, but members of the committee have described the award as an "early vote of confidence" in Obama. The Nobel Committee has also been faced with accusations that giving Obama the award was a way for the committee (who has a majority of left-sided members) to show that they are happy to see the end of the Bush administration.
I personally would have to agree with the question most Americans are asking, "What has President Obama actually accomplished?" So far in his administration, Obama has made a lot of good promises, but has not yet followed through with any of them. President Obama assured Americans during his campaign that he would remove troops from Iraq, however he has been slow to do so, and is now sending more troops into Afghanistan.
Hopefully, despite claims that the prize was awarded to President Obama too early in his administration, or as a means for showing dissatisfaction in the Bush administration the prize will still encourage Obama to follow through on his plans that will bring peace.
Oslo, "Obama Accepts Nobel as 'Call to Action,'" news.aol.com, October 9, 2009 <http://news.aol.com/article/president-barack-obama-wins-nobel-peace/710891>
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"Early vote of confidence?" Sorry, but that is just so dumb!
ReplyDeleteIt bugs me that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize because, as you mentioned, he hasn't really done anything specific do deserve it. But the worst is that he won it over someone else. Think of all the people in the world who have made actual sacrifices to promote peace in the world, and here Obama is receiving an award for promises.
In my mind, I've always regarded the Nobel Peace Prize as like the top honor, but now it seems like kind of a joke.