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Now WE Must Earn Obama's Nobel
The Nobel Prize given to Barack Obama must now be earned by a grassroots movement dedicated to peace. The award was given to an American president now ignobly intent on waging war.
So the task of actually earning this honor falls to us.
Thousands of anti-war activists took to the streets in at least 100 US cities within hours after Obama officially escalated the war on Afghanistan on December 1.
With them came a least one new global internet campaign (The Peace, Justice & Environment Network, http://pjep.org/resources/detail.php?rid=2275) devoted to reversing this ghastly attack as well as to saving the environment and winning social justice.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced legislation to deny the funding for this war.
All around the world a sane citizenry has made it clear that war is not peace.
Perhaps the Nobel committee knew it was taking a gamble on Obama when it gave him a Peace Prize he has not yet earned. Perhaps some voters hoped that it would influence his decision and help him turn away from a clearly catastrophic excursion into the Graveyard of Great Powers.
But the President has delivered his answer: No Such Luck.
The tragedy of his speech and behavior in Norway is heart-wrenching. Obama devoted his once-in-a-lifetime talk to justifying American warfare, conjuring righteous images of this nation as an armed crusader, and asserting that violence is an immovable piece of the human condition rather than the ultimate enemy.
If the Nobel Prize has stood for anything over the decades, it's been as a beacon to the hope that our species might ultimately evolve into something better.
It was with the hope that Obama would further that vision that the award was given. But he flew into town, pitched an infomercial for war, blew off the traditional niceties of a meeting with the King of Norway, a talk to the Parliament, a visit with local children and much more -- and then split town to do -- what?....that could be so much more important.
In short, beneath that smooth, calm veneer, Barack Obama was ingracious and rude in a setting designed to epitomize the opposite. For Americans dedicated to global goodwill---many of whom voted for him---he was downright embarrassing. For those committed to justice and peace, he was alarming and infuriating.
Obama did acknowledge that he did not deserve the award, and that his contributions had been "slender." That much has become an overly kind self-appraisal.
He also acknowledged he came to the award by virtue of the work of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement he helped lead.
But Dr. King would have been utterly heartbroken by Obama's screed for war in the most inappropriate time and place. It was King who forever linked the unjust war in Vietnam with the moral and financial bankruptcy of the nation waging it. Now his ultimate beneficiary is perpetrating all the good doctor's worst fears.
Obama's speech has been brilliantly dissected at great length by superb commentators like Norman Solomon ("Mr. President, War is Not Peace", Commondreams.org); David Swanson ("Obama's Infomercial for War," at Portside); David DeGraw ("Obama Far Outdoes Bush in Escalating War," at Alternet) and many more.
It's a tragic picture with a very clear message: the peace movement must re-constitute itself with sufficient power to fulfill the Nobel mandate. For those who might have retained residual hope or illusions for this young president, this must stand as the definitive departure.
We now face triple crises in war, where the president has escalated; health care, where he has refused to discuss single payer and now presides over the gutting of the public option; and the environment, where he has escalated the ultimate destroyer---war---and may soon open the door to its ultimate evil, atomic power.
It's not enough to wring our hands. It's time to move on and figure out how to win. Our ideals---from meaningful peace to universal health care to a Solartopian energy economy---are all tangible, essential and winnable.
The ignoble truth is that the man in the White House is not our ally.
So what else is new? Obama's failures have made it OUR Nobel.
Yes we can!
40 Comments so far
Show Alldon't want to sound pendantic, but if you are quoting someone, you should really properly attribute the quote. And you shouldn't paraphrase it so as to make it appear as if it is your original work, unless you mention that you are paraphrasing it.
It is: “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” - George Orwell
The tragedy of his speech and behavior in Norway is heart-wrenching.
"Heart wrenching" isn't exactly the adjective I would have used. It implies that FUBARack H. Obama means well but is somehow deluded or misguided. FUBARack H. Obama does not mean well. He is cancer. He is death. He is grinning and spitting blood in your face.
Well as I recently found out Obama's first job out of Columbia was as an editor for a CIA front International Business Corp.
I think he has been CIA friendly ever since and maybe before.
it explains almost everything to me.
Over and out.
What article fails to mention:
Since we have no genuine democratic process, the only way to get the attention of ruling elite is massive civil disobedience. If those lucky enough to have jobs did not go; and joined everyone else in the streets, we could shut the country down for a few days. Once corporate profits are in jeopardy, they will pay attention. Otherwise they scoff at spit at the people daily.
One thing that is positive here: a clear majority of Americans can see through all the lies and propaganda we are bombarded with by the TV and politicians: a clear majority want an end to the wars immediately.
Yep.... It is gettin intense.
I'm afraid to admit this but just like in South Africa when the majority wanted equal power from their oppressive government, the only option that worked was violence--that was because that regime was violent. Right now here in the US we have a corrupt regime that has time and again proven that peaceful methods have not worked and have shown that any attempt to disrupt the plans of the power that be, will be met with force--it is time to get serious and deal with this evil power on a equal level--we must fight fire with fire until we end this nightmare once and for all.
Essentially, Barry was right about what he said in Norway,""A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms," Obama said. "To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history." We the people hear you Obomber and we are now willing to end you evil scheme.
Furthermore, those who enable this corruption must also suffer the wrath of those who oppose this wickedness. Until we realize this simple truth, we will just be spinning our wheels. We can't go on pretending that the next election well bring us change--it's a fixed system that guarantees success to the same culprits, while only giving false hope to those who wish for a better and more just future.
You don't have the weapons, and people to defeat a modern army in civil war with-all the weapons of war, psyops and surveillance, you would be crushed and made a patsy of before you could say yippee.
violence fear and lies is their game... reason and truth must be ours.
You don't need weapons. We need brave bodies.
Out of 300 million, we need 1 to shut down & take the Capital and Pentagon. If we don't have that meager amount to do the job quickly, then its over when the MIC and Wall Street say its over. Make it sound as complicated as you'd like. I think you're just don't have it in you, Jim Glover.
A "patsy and crushed"? Fine. Its better than being a shrinking coward. I'll gladly take that chance.
Think about the shit those poor human beings are going through in Iraq and Afgan. Never ending bombs, shelling and gunfire. How'd you like that in YOUR 'hood, NIMBYS? When is enough, enough for you? Perhaps our peace making brothers & sisters are just afraid to take a little gas in the face, or (the horror), shed a little blood.
Perhaps we should just cede the nation to these bastards for good.
Have a nice day. :)
Probably more like 5 million, staying put for a few days, to make a significant impact jamming the bridges, roads and metro up.
But I agree, it is doable. It certainly has been done in other countries.
'Essentially, Barry was right about what he said in Norway,""A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies.'
No, Barry was wrong, naturally wrong. Hitler's armies could have VERY easily been stopped DEAD in their tracks by a non-violent movement inside Germany. Warmonger Barry is wrong, and will always be wrong, for practical purposes.
'Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms," Obama said.'
Barry is blocking the relevant fact with the irrelevant. The relevant fact is that reigning in US elites' imperial agenda eliminates the grave risks to US public safety. Until the imperial agenda is terminated, all USans are at grave risk of further imperial blowback, ehh? Tell Barry the news. The imperial blowback we all know is scheduled for this upcoming decade will have his name on it.
"To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history."
Who voted for him? 70 million USans? Unbelievable. Force is NEVER necessary when you build and maintain a functional society. Functional! See the far-left platform.
I'm starting to think the only way we can win is to first lose big. Work to elect Palin in 2012 on a strict pro-religion, pro-business plank. The resulting failure will be so bad as to make "for-profit" anything (healthcare, war, you name it) seem foul. Then at least we can get it out of our system, so to speak, and get on to the important stuff like global warming.
So another typical liberal makes vague calls for action, but absolutely no specific organizing action - that would take too much work.
And when someone does do the work and actually organizes a specific action, like the action this Saturday in DC, they are ignored and ridiculed.
Here is part of what Feinman said on NPR the other day:
"SIEGEL: Why do you think President Obama gave such a speech? That - you would suggest here it's out of character?
Mr. FINEMAN: Well, first of all, I don't think it's entirely out of character. I think even though he came to prominence with that anti-war speech, anti-Iraq speech that he gave in 2002, his positions have always been much more nuanced and realistic than some of his most fervent supporters have thought. They weren't listening to everything he said. He's always been a realist. He's never been a pacifist. And he showed that by the decisions he's made recently.
SIEGEL: And his audience for this speech, who do you think it was?
Mr. FINEMAN: Well, it wasn't the people in Norway because they weren't applauding, and he skipped lunch and he skipped dinner very much in the Bush fashion to get back here to the United States. I think the audience was middle-class swing voters in the United States of America who elected him and who will decide his future."
"very much in the Bush fashion." I wonder how many more times a phrase like this gets repeated in the next four -- or eight (oh, nooo) -- years we get to hear this.
Also from (the transcript of) that radio piece:
"ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Now some reactions to the speech from Richard Haass,... from Howard Fineman of Newsweek and MSNBC, and first from Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. ...
"Ms. KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (Editor and Publisher, The Nation): I take away from it that President Obama is an ethical realist."*
Ethical? Realist? These words must mean something different from what I always thought they meant. 'Ethical' meant having good moral values in one's actions. 'Realist' meant one who sees things as they are. Is B.O. seeing what's going on and reacting with Xtian, or any, humane quidelines? No.
*http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121304855
Katrina and the rest of the kool-aid drinkers that swear that Obama can do no wrong make me retch. I'm so sick of these members of the privileged classes who speak in platitudes and abstractions on the wondrousness of all things Obama.
When do you imagine was the last time Katrina had to worry about making her mortgage payment or having to decide whether to buy food or buy medicine?
"They weren't listening to everything he said"
The chump means the people didn't read the fine print, made fine with the intent to deceive. The people won't be free until they take back control of production. This is why we on the far-left advocate local economies.
Do we have to earn Kissinger's Nobel too?
There was a grassroots movement committed to peace and that was torn up by Kerry '04, with a warhawk DNC keynote speech by Barry Obama. I recall watching that live at a Peace Action event which was also used (shamefully) as a Kerry for Prez event by the organizers, who I chastized then and now as frauds for backing the Dems and Kerry instead of the Greens and/or Nader.
FIVE YEARS AGO I caught crap from Dems for seeing through Obama, LAST YEAR I caught crap from Dems for seeing through Obama, now a year into what amounts to Bush's Third Term the Dem apologists want to "lead" me/us to a "grassroots movemnet" (isn't this what they called the Obama campaign too?!) which is conspicuously missing any mention of breaking with the same ol' damn Dems once and for all.
Y'know, now that they've halfway noticed what actual lefties HAVE BEEN SCREAMING AT THEM FOR 20 YEARS.
I'm sorry Harvey. My "yes we can" done gone and went. We mobilized every pacifistic soul from moderates through Naderites to landslide our guy Mr. Audacious, and here we fucking go again. Looks like the steering wheel of democracy was hooked up to a suction cup. Again. We catch on slower than Charlie Brown. If you think the grassroots is going to rise up and shake off its dementia I'd say you've been into the leaves and buds. I'd join you and the diehard Berkenstockers down on the pier to block the troop deployments and upend the whole monolithic armed-to-the-teeth military industrial political banking media complex, but really, wouldn't almost anything else be less of a waste of time? The Human Race Has A Death Wish, Mr. Wasserman. That's why God made America. Let me know when you've got it figured out how to take over Zombieland. I'm going fishing.
I am sorry to say that what has happened serves you right. If you had carefully studied what Mr. Obama told the Chicago Tribune in the spring of 2008 you would have realized that he is an imperialist pur sang who was going to wage is own "non-dumb" war. Your tears are of the crocodile variety.
That was the best speech Bush ever gave.
Ha! Good comment. It made me laugh!
The beginning of the article mentions another proper action by Dennis Kucinich. Can someone please tell me why he was not voted for President in 2008? He's one of the very few (and I mean less than 10 here) congress persons and senators that consistantly come out doing and saying all the correct things. But for some reason his candidacy did not get any traction. The entire population couldn't vote for Obama fast enough. And anyone who wasn't supporting Obama was supporting Clinton. Is there any difference between these two people, besides a suit and a skirt? All the while the MSM didn't give Kucinich any air time. I worked on Kucinich's campaign in San Diego. One of the tasks I performed was putting up yard signs along the roads. Everytime I went out on an night sortie of placing signs, they'd all be ripped out and gone by 7 am the next morning. Talk about a threat!
Kucinich voted for Obama and encouraged you to do the same, knowing full well that this is where we were headed.
I'm really tired of this guy being held out as a hero. He's a bit player in a game in which the Dems defraud their voting base. I'll respect him when he leaves the party, my guess being never.
He voted for Obama for the same reason many did - he was better than the alternative. And I suspect DK believes fighting from within the Dem party stands a better chance.
No, he voted for Obama and backed him because his job in the party is to be the Loyal (Non-functional) Opposition and bring the 'progressive' sheep back into the fold.
During his campaign it was evident that Kucinich didn't see much of a difference between any Dem and a Republican based on the issues. Reality bears that out.
What did you all think the Big Horrible Thing was that was going to happen if you voted for Nader or McKinney and McCain won? Expanded war? A trillion dollar bankster gift? A larger military budget than under Bush? Drilling in Alaska? Refusal to sign the landmine ban? Guatanamo would still be open?
Well, it's a good thing THAT didn't happen, boy, that would be terrible! Way to stave that off!
So my argument is that Kucinich is a knowing puppet and your defense of the man - your DEFENSE of him, mind you - is that he exercises massive lapses of judgement in consistent four-year cycles!
"Obama's speech has been brilliantly dissected at great length by superb commentators..."
This accomplishes nothing. Rhetoric and analyses of the evils of U.S. presidents have been ongoing for decades. And what has it accomplished? So-called Right vs. so-called Left have been spinning their wheels at each other and isolating the topic of global war into small sections of delusionary solutions (i.e. U.S. 'in' or 'out' of Afghanistan and Iraq). Do American progressives seriously believe that by removing the empire's troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, we will have accomplished much?
"It's not enough to wring our hands. It's time to move on and figure out how to win."
The methods of "how to win" are known. The answers and solutions are clear. They have been clear for decades. The answers and solutions have certainly been clear since 09/11/01 when this bogus 'global war on terror' escalated. The problem is that the American public refuses to make the necessary sacrifices to accomplish the goal of ending war. Making excuses for presidents and congresses, and analyzing the actions (and the non-actions) of these corporate/military shills is much easier than actually having to DO something.
The real problem is that the American Empire has between 750 and 1,000 overseas military bases. The real problem is that the Empire's war budget expands every year and the American people feel helpless to DO anything about it - primarily because their personally-elected Republican or Democratic "representatives" don't do anything about it.
The answer lies beyond civil disobedience. The answer lies in a complete refusal to support - in any way, shape or form - militarism and the maintenance and expansion of the American Empire. Simple answer, isn't it?
The difficult part is the complete refusal to pay war taxes, the complete refusal to support the empire's war contractors, and the complete refusal to support the empire's VOLUNTEER troops who are invading and occupying foreign countries - KILLING anyone who gets in their way.
The answer lies in total non-cooperation with the empire's goal of permanent war. Yeah I know. It's much safer and easier to continue complaining and pretending that band-aid approaches are moving this empire away from actually being an empire.
Do we continue living as Delusionaries or do we finally DO something to collapse this American Empire?
Earn? Power in this country isn't 'earned' it is stolen.
The Nobel "Peace" Prize is nothing but tainted crap. Obama deserved neither a peace prize or the presidency for that matter. Sometimes, I have a serious headache trying to figure out why the grassroots bothered to concede and go along with the corporate media and the Washington establishment in ignoring Nader and Mckinney who were the true leaders for peace. This administration can keep its lousy "prize" for all I care. The Nobel Committee is itself filled with materialistic lame brains that would make Vinton Harper of Mama's Family look "smart" in pale comparison. The grassroots peace movement needs its own healing and repair independent of the Nobel.
The Nobel prize has been a joke ever since Al Gore won it. Really, who takes that seriously?
"All animals are equal but some animals are ore equal than others." - George Orwell
Lest anyone entertains the idea that socialism really works. In the end the pigs start wearing clothes and walking upright like they do in the American Congress now. Time to clean out the stalls of their filth come election time next year. Bye, bye Harry, can't say it's been a pleasure knowing of you. Go back and protect your land deals.
"a joke since Al Gore won it?" Are you serious? Check out previous winners including arch-warrior Henry Kissinger. Although even he pretended to be for peace when he accepted the award.
Your remarks about "socialism" and the U.S. Congress make no sense at all. There is only one socialist in Congress, Bernie Saunders, and he is doing an honest job. The rest of the Dems and Republicans are all working for the corporations. You, Thom, are too, along with your deluded tea-bagger friends.
Most people have no idea what socialism means. They don't read books they believe what they are told by the plastic-faced talking heads on TV. In todays Doublespeak Fascism = Socialism; War=Peace etc.
This is another example of who is in control . Congress has shown us who is in control of our health care , our banking system , and our treasury . Big oil is involved in Afghanistan and they are bigger than most the other giants that have their hands on the necks of Congress . If you will notice that getting more funds to spend in Iraq and Afghanistan is done so quietly and quickly we the electorate never knew we spent it . But there is lot of yelling and screaming at the mention of domestic spending . The man we elected as President came from a junior position in the Senate of the U.S.A. and there is a requirement for moving up to the Presidentcy from Congress known as longevity . Our President moved from the most junior position to the Presidentcy because we the electorate put him there and a member of the gang of senior Congress persons made it known publically that they were an equal branch of government . So without the power to collect the funds or the power to make laws our President must in all respects give that power to those that were given the power by the Constitution of the U.S.A. Washington never does anything without pressure from very influencial entities so it would be prudent to look in to why decisions are made and maybe we might agree with the decisions .
I feel I earned it when I voted for Cynthia McKinney.
Sadly, none of this matters. We don't have a functioning democratic process in the first place, only a well-functioning Public Relations big-money
Democracy(TM). A non-corporate sponsored candidate has 0 chance of winning. The cadnidate with the most money wins.
I voted for McKinney for symbolic purposes only.
"when I realized that the Greens (In My Honest Opinion) used McKinney, simply as an attempt to stall Nader's campaign."
What would be the point of that?
I favor a General Strike or a Stay Home Day.
If you have children, make them part of the Stay Home Day. No school. It's mostly indoctrination anyway. But also, NO TV!
Wouldn't it be nice if something like this came from a sudden groundswell of consensus, a "viral" commune of sentiment: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna put up with it anymore."
Together everyone: "Stop the Madness!"
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