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Praise and Skepticism Greet Obama Nobel Award
LONDON- A surprised world greeted the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama with a mixture of praise and skepticism on Friday.
In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed Obama's
"extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and
cooperation between peoples."
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg referred to Obama's work for peace and disarmament, saying: "This is a surprising, an exciting prize. It remains to be seen if he will succeed with reconciliation, peace and nuclear disarmament."
Afghanistan's Taliban mocked the award, saying it was absurd to give it to Obama when he had ordered 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan this year.
"The Nobel prize for peace? Obama should have won the 'Nobel Prize for escalating violence and killing civilians'," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency -- awarded the prize in 2005 -- said: "I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor. In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement: "The award of the prize to President Obama, leader of the most significant military power in the world, at the beginning of his mandate, is a reflection of the hopes he has raised globally with his vision of a world without nuclear weapons."
In the Middle East, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said the award could be a good omen for peace in the region.
"We hope that he will be able to achieve peace in the Middle East and achieve Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and establish an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital," he told Reuters
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told army radio he believed the award would enhance Obama's ability "to contribute to establishing regional peace in the Middle East and a settlement between us and the Palestinians that will bring security, prosperity and growth to all the peoples of the region."
The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and opposes a peace treaty with Israel, was more skeptical.
"Unless real and deep-rooted change is made in American policy toward recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people I would think such a prize would be useless," Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, told reporters after Friday prayers.
REAL CHANGE
Saleh al-Mutlaq, a senior Iraqi Sunni Muslim lawmaker, told Reuters: "I think he deserves this prize. Obama succeeded to make a real change in the policy of the United States -- a change from a policy that was exporting evil to the world to a policy exporting peace and stability to the world."
In Indonesia, Masdar Mas'udi, deputy head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdatul Ulama, said: "I think it's a good thing. I think it's appropriate because he is the only American president who has reached out to us in peace. On the issues of race, religion, skin color, he has an open attitude."
In Pakistan, Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party, said: "It's a joke. How embarrassing for those who awarded it to him because he's done nothing for peace. What change has he brought in Iraq, the Middle East or Afghanistan?"
South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, awarded the prize himself in 1984, hailed the award as "a magnificent endorsement for the first African American president in history."
Two other former recipients, Mikhail Gorbachev and Wangari Maathai, were among the first to offer their congratulations.
Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader awarded the prize in 1990, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "In these hard times people who are capable of taking responsibility, who have a vision, commitment and political will should be supported."
Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist who won in 2004, referred to Obama's mixed heritage of a Kenyan father and American mother, called it "another very encouraging event for Africa."
From Obama's ancestral village of Kogelo in western Kenya his uncle Said Obama told Reuters: "It is humbling for us as a family and we share in Barack's honor. We congratulate him."
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai, who had been among the favorites to win this year, said Obama was an extraordinary example.
"I wish to congratulate President Obama. I think he is a deserving candidate," he told Reuters during a visit to Spain.
Writing by Andrew Dobbie; Editing by Angus MacSwan
257 Comments so far
Show AllWell, we now know that the 'peace' part of the Nobel Peace Prize is open for interpretation... What the hell are they thinking?
absurd............
Coco:
Ya think so?...........
Hi Coco!
nah, it was just a word that came into my head, along with all the other expletives.......but i managed to actually just type that one!!!!
you should have been awarded that prize based on your 'moniker' alone.......
how's it going buddy? still waiting to see you here in europe....
shame we seem to have lost kem................
coco
I know...I was just joking with you, but that one word was funny.
Thanks for the comp, Coco. I'm still just an angry pacifist, waiting patiently for the "general strike" to begin.
I've been very busy on different projects and working with several groups this past year.
I don't know what happened to Kem...he was a lot of fun and shared quite a bit of information with us.
I'm thinking about the trip to Europe next year. We'll hook up then. Take care of yourself.
On your trip come and see us here in Portugal:
http://www.solnascente.aveiro.co.pt/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That is just simply incredible. The Nobel Peace Prize to a war criminal. Perhaps the CIA slipped some mind control drugs into the committee's water supply?
What I find remarkable--and terribly distressing--is that a Western world politician on the international stage is awarded the Peace prize for simply suggesting that nations need to talk out their problems instead of resorting to force. That formula was expounded by St. Paul almost 2000 years ago.
It just goes to show how far from being Christian the "Christian" world has strayed.
I was going to say, it's amazing what a couple of "feel good" speeches can get you. Congrats to the speechwriters and a teleprompter that didn't malfunction that day. I was over at HuffPo where the Obama-can-do-no-wrong crowd is having a blast attacking anyone who doesn't agree with them that Obama is the greatest since (fill in the blank).
I was frankly shocked by this. I was reading yesterday about the depression and demoralization of our troops. Apparently they don't know what they're fighting for. I don't either and I wish someone would let us all know.
I don't believe Obama is the real deal. He comes across as a poser, as did Bush. I think he really relishes the power. I don't feel there is compassion or real caring in this man. I would like to be wrong about this, but if I just take the issue of health care, I simply don't know what this man believes in except corporate power.
In addition to the two wars, one could mention those entities still firmly in place with no end in sight, the war profiteers and mercenaries KBR and Blackwater.
SAME CAMEL DIFFERENT SADDLE. THE BEAT GOES ON. EXCEPT THAT THE WORLD KNOWS what's going on and is fed up with it.WAR IS EVIL, AN UNNECESSARY MONEYMAKER.WHO NEEDS A SEVENTY MILE LONG DRIVEWAY? ROCHEFELLERS HAVE SEVERAL and with their Rothschilds cohorts rule the world. OBOMBA GOOSE STEPS along to their psychopathic warmongering commands and in return they get him the Nobel peace prize, just like they did for diabolical Heinrich Kissinger
Congratulations President Obama on your Nobel Peace Prize!
Let's take a look at the short list of your accomplishments which have made the world a safer more peaceful place:
- Proposed the largest Defense Budget the world has ever seen.
- Use all your powers and influence to ensure the war criminals who preceded you are never held accountable.
- Order the launching of drone attacks into the sovereign country of Pakistan.
- Refuse to consider the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan as even an option.
- Give the nod for U.S. bases to be built in Colombia to threaten all of Latin America, specifically Venezuela.
- Blatantly and purposefully misrepresent the facts regarding the Iranian nuclear program while simultaneously allowing three other nuclear powers, Israel, Pakistan and India freedom from any restraint.
- Continue to build a missile defense shield around Russia while absurdly claiming it's to protect against Iranian missiles.
- Demand the Palestinians end their pursuit of justice regarding the war crimes committed against them as documented in the Goldstone report.
- Twiddle your thumbs while the Israelis continue to build new settlements, considered illegal by the entire world.
- Open up a new front in the bogus war on terror in Somalia.
- Give no indication of preparedness to make needed carbon-reduction concessions at Copenhagen the end result of which will lead to destabilization and upheaval for every country in the world.
- Refuse to return the U.S. to being ruled by the Constitution and rule of law instead of an unaccountable Unitary Executive.
And the list goes on---but, but Obama is just a solitary man almost singlehandedly trying to fight against great odds, with so much to contend with, and they would kill him if he tried!
That is always the argument promoted, the facts don't matter. It doesn't matter that he continues Bush policy or builds on it--or escalates war or transfers wealth or that he appointed the criminals who created the mess, we just need to give him more time to fix what he is continuing to destroy. Certainly it was time enough to win the peace prize.
"Obama is just a solitary man almost singlehandedly trying to fight against great odds"
Constitutions and treaties can be a bitch.
A-f*****g-men!
That pretty much nails it.
You nailed it, Cygnus!
Is today April Fools Day?
:)
I think you may have hit on what's going on.
Best comment on the page. Love it!
Anne:
Yes indeed. I'm LOL! We need a little humor in these times to help keep us sane.
The CD'ers have it right. Good comments brothers and sisters.
"We need a little humor in these times to help keep us sane."
Funny will get you through times of no hope better than hope will get you through times of no funny.
"Funny will get you through times of no hope better than hope will get you through times of no funny."
Yes, up to a point.
The U.S.A. is a divided and confused nation. Now the U.S.A. is more divided and confused than ever!
Stephen V
The USA Is NEITHER divided nor confused.The 1% of the population holds ALL the wealth and then the rest are losing everything that they have worked all their life for. Simple as ABC.The WAR ECONOMY and it's propaganda IS A CON TO ENABLE THE RICH TO GET RICHER. OBOMBA IS A WAR CRIMINAL,A LIAR and a member of the clique of the rich, who are rich because of wars.Being chosen to be the Nobel peace prize recipient,demeans the honor of the concept to a rigged sham.
He's the perfect candidate. No one else is even close.
Let's see:
Ongoing occupation of Iraq? Check!
Escalating the war in Vietnamistan? Check!
Rendering suspects? Check!
Torturing prisoners? Check!
Guantanamo concentration camp? Check!
Domestic surveillance? Check!
Attacks on Pakistani civilians? Check!
Fisa? Check!
Patriot Act? Check!
Protecting Bush crimes? Check!
My goodness, he deserves a dozen peace prizes. Even Jesus couldn't compete with a record like that.
You didn't even touch on South American bases, Zelaya, drones, Bagram. I can think of a dozen people struggling for peace who deserve this prize more. Th Peace Prize has been a joke for quite a while, honoring the celebrity of the day. Sometimes they happen on someone worthy.
Joe
Healthcare, climate change, gay rights...
OOPS!Don't forget about enlarging Bagram torture prison.Silent and indifferent to the genocide in the GAZA STRIP(Which our Dollars financed White phosphorous bombs that baked the hundreds of trapped children there and the animals in Gaza Zoo that were all slaughtered .It took a pregnant camel two hours to die.OBOMBA's government war crimes project of complicit deliberate extermination of helpless people.Then after the 22,000 houses there were rubble, aid and medical supplies from around the world, were prevented from entering the concentration camp and the CAST LEAD ATROCITIES which horrified the entire world,were ignored by the prince of darkness himself, as though these people were insects.The propaganda media failed to cover any of that truth so OBOMBA WAS OFF THE HOOK if the Americans knew nothing!
THIS GUY, YEP, HE SURE IS A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT ad nauseum, bloody coward sychophant!
Should they make it the "Nobel War Prize?" God, what a bunch of cr**. Seems like we live in a world similar to Poe's "Dr. Tar and Professor Feather. Simply absurd!
Skeptical? Skeptical is too nice. He was in office for less than two weeks before the nomination deadline!!! It's like the world is only rejoicing because Bush is not in office anymore. It's not like Obama is going to make this world much better! Guantanamo won't close down by the 'promised' date, more troops to Afghanistan, filling his Treasury Department/Economic Advisory team with Goldman Sachs goons (who caused the financial crisis in the first place!), dawdling on MEANINGFUL health care reform, doing god knows what in Iraq, wasting time and money (and OIL!) to make a trip to Copenhagen to push for Chicago for the 2016 Olympics (but will he go back to Denmark in December for the big climate change meaning? Um, NO!), all this and more...WHAT WERE THE NORWEGIANS THINKING???????????????
Astonishing!
I did not know killing, torturing, maiming etc was part of PEACE.
How did Saddam not get the PEACE prize so!
1973 Nobel Peace Prize Award winner: Henry Kissinger
This isn't anything new.
True. And look what that m*therf**ker did to Chile!
Kivals, that is exactly what makes it so confusing. Rev. Martin Luther King was also awarded the Noble Peace Prize.
The Nobel committee's radical inconsistency of principles in selecting peace prize recipients reflects a similar inconsistency in the elite media and the elite establishment in general. The elite establishment's apologists cite its occasional just actions as evidence of worthiness of continued support while its myriad unjust actions keep the fires of oppression well-stoked.
After securing their individual and local self-determination, the people should force their governments to implement the hippocratic oath, i.e. "do no harm" to finally put a halt to the elites' wicked two-faced abuse of the public trust.
I heard he just edged out Rumsfeld in the vote... But those crafty Norwegians, they really know how to hurt a guy!
I think you got it wrong, it was between Barack and Stan McChrystal... they argued over it all night long.
Based on what? Since support for Obama is eroding, surely it is something that the American people are missing...An award for the first person of color to win the presidency? In that case, it should be the American people who win the prize. As compensation for the overwhelming rejection of Chicago's Olympic prospects? A cynical political calculation? Really, I think Oslo has done the American people a disservice in propping up the illusion that Obama has done anything substantial to deserve this and their credibility will suffer as a result.
"It remains to be seen if he will succeed with reconciliation, peace and nuclear disarmament."
But no matter, we will give him the prize anyway.
This is a joke. a bad joke and we are the butt of the joke.
Vern, that was my first thought: this is a JOKE. I had to scroll up and see if it was published in the Onion.
That was my first response, too. I laughed. I thought it was a joke. But now that I've been reminded that Kissinger was also awarded the prize... shocking, but not funny.
The anger at this shows how out of touch most Americans (300 million) are with the rest of the world (5.8 billion.)
Much of the Earth's non-American population is outside the orbit of our corporate propaganda machine. It sees one man, seemingly almost single-handedly, trying to bring the United States back from the abyss to join the human race.
Considering the odds against him, the entrenched ignorance, fear and hatred (280-million privately owned guns) and the merciless ruthlessness of our corporate masters, Obama deserves the prize on courage and vision alone.
You wonder what might have been accomplished so far if even a third of his own party wasn't on the other side.
That might be so IF he was actually reversing course rather than continuing Bush era policy.
That Poor-Obama-as-the-lone-hero-against-insurmountable-odds-and-so-much-to- contend-with-and-if-he-even-tried-they-would-kill-him just doesn't provide cover for his compromised complicity and cowardice.
The other big line of attack is anyone who criticizes Obama is immediately branded as a Right-wing nut (check out Huff Post), which is the same polarized world view as Bush's "you're either with us or against us" and actually provides cover for Obama and the Democrats via partisanship games even when the Democrats are on the same page as the Republicans.
Hey, my ten year old son refused to sit through the compulsory speech of the great one because of my son's pacifist stance was told "this is not going to be fun for you," and was sent to the principal's office and given extra homework. Other teachers who thought he was being punished for doing something wrong were not corrected in their view as my son sat there on a bench for one hour.
Tell your son how proud I am to read about his courage. He is a fine young man.
Great point. If only we could have the perspective of an outsider like a Pakistani civilian being bombed from an American drone or be a Guantanamo prisoner detained without trial...Then we, as ignorant Americans, would understand Obama's "courage and vision."
Obama, spreading peaceful diplomacy through killer drones.
It's the American way.
"...Then we, as ignorant Americans..." No, you as ignorant Americans -- I guess you're the spokespersom for that group -- will never understand.
The Pakistanis, better informed than you, know what it war is and how hard it is going to be to end this one. Obama is more popular there, and in the rest of the Moslem world, than any former American president. Ever.
Congress refused to allow Obama to close Guantanamo. But as of yesterday the way has been cleared for the prisoners to be brought into the U.S. for trial. That's the first step.
You guys (the ignorant Americans) are really going ape-shit over the Nobel aren't you. Pass the popcorn.
It seems that they want to encourage the one person who could do more for peace than any individual in the next 3 years. In a way they are taking a chance for peace and on their reputation, but they have been giving out lots of prizes and the world is still far from peace.
All they can do is give a prize for peace we never had..... but Obama can make peace with 3 years to go and I hope the PEACE PRIZE gives him SOMETHING TO LIVE UP TOO.
It also should keep us on him to deliver.
Keep the spirit
He doesn't have to earn it if he has already won it.
You are right he doesn't have to.
The world may have more expectations now... and that can help.
We'll see