Peace Prize?

Mr. Barack Obama is the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. At best, the world was “stunned” and “shocked” by the rather “unexpected” choice so early in the presidential term, a term that began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. A beaming Obama told reporters in the White House Rose Garden that he that was honored and humbled to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but that he wasn't sure he had done enough to earn the award, or deserved to be in the company of the others who had won it before him. But, he said, "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century." Obama is the third U.S. president to win the prize while in office, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

Obama's selection as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday left many Americans puzzled about why he deserved the honor. Quoting a few comments: "It would be wonderful if I could think why he won." "They wanted to give him an honor I guess but I can't think what for." "My first opinion is that he got it because he's black. What did he do that was so great? He hasn't even finished office yet." Former President Jimmy Carter, who won the prize in 2002, said "It is a bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment to peace and harmony in international relations." Then we have Rush Limbaugh’s comment: "Obama gives speeches trashing his own country and he gets a prize for it." Others have commented that: "This is the Nobel committee giving Obama the 'you are not George W. Bush' award." "Why not give him the literature prize? At least he's actually written a couple of books." And of course my own immortal comment upon reading of the award… “Huh?”

The Peace Prize has been handed out for 108 years, supposedly for activities involving peaceful activities. Recipients include Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross and initiator of the Geneva Convention, Teddy Roosevelt, who brought about the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan. In 1919 the prize was awarded to Woodrow Wilson, who is credited with founding the League of Nations. However, I’d think that awards to such people as Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, and Martin Luther King Jr. are somewhat counter-balanced by the rather dubious awards to Yasser Arafat and Le Duc Tho!

The Nobel Prize was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel, and was first awarded in 1901. The Nobel Prizes in the specific disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) and the Prize in Economics, which is commonly identified with them, are widely regarded as the most prestigious award one can receive in those fields. The Nobel Peace Prize on the other hand conveys social prestige and is often controversial. This year’s award will apparently be no exception.

Really though, we have to stop and think about what the award committee was trying to say, and what were they trying to do? Mr. Obama is not Woodrow Wilson who won it because he created the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations. That I can understand. I can understand Teddy Roosevelt’s win for stopping a particularly nasty war between Japan and Imperial Russia. But in this case I’d be tempted to think it’s more of an anti-Bush statement from Europe. And I think that they are saying that the United States has been resistant to the kind of peaceable fraternal efforts that are the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize. The odd part is we’re still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Guantanamo Bay is still open. Mr. Obama has made some nice sounding statements to a number of tyrants, and has apologized to the Muslims for the Twin Towers getting in front of a couple of Arab piloted airliners. But I really find it difficult to believe that this makes him the equal of Albert Schweitzer! Still, Europeans do have what I consider to be rather odd ideas of war and peace. I’m mindfull of World War One, where all of Europe exploded into a mass frenzy of mayhem and destruction over the deaths of two people. Then there was World War Two, where Europeans spent years weeping and wailing about the evils of Nazi Germany, and were still wringing their hands when Hitler burst out of his borders. But I also notice that FDR didn’t get any prize for bringing the United States into Europe’s fight and pulling their chestnuts out of the fire. Ike didn’t get one for ending the Korean War, nor did Nixon for ending the Vietnam War. But Mr. Obama gets one for nothing more than mouthing a few platitudes? I guess this goes to prove that you really can become anything you want in America.

A straw poll by MSNBC asked whether Obama deserved the honor. 62 percent of more than 194,000 responders said no, 24 percent said yes, and 13 percent said the award was premature. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who generally applauds Obama, praised the award, saying it was "a positive measure" that was more a criticism of past U.S. policies than recognition of Obama's accomplishments. The Nobel Committee announced that it was trying "to promote what he stands for and the positive processes that have started now." It lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change. So being able to listen to Europe’s lectures on international goodwill is enough to win a prize worth $1.4 million, and have a place in history. And that diminishes both the president and the prize in a way that it should not. Obama got his award for the kind of fuzzy internationalism in which he bows to the United Nations. They might love that in Norway but it’s not what an American president is elected to do.

Dunno about the motives of the Nobel Committee, nor do I really care about world opinion, but had I been President in the aftermath of 911, and tasked with the defense of America, either the Moslems would have quickly gotten a hammerlock on their fanatics, or the Nobel Committee would have had to invent a prize for war. "Shock and Awe" would have taken on entirely new meanings!