Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

[30ashopper]

There is no doubt that the tone has changed since this administration took office. It's important to separate this out from the state of our nation and whatever positive, negative or neutral effect Obama has had on it. This award is about the World, not just us. The world perceives us more positively. This doesn't solve our very serious problems by any means, but it is a good thing.

How so? Has this new found perception helped with Iran, has it brought more NATO troops to help in Afghanistan, has it helped with North Korea's nuclear ambitions or china's control over it's currency, has it improved relations in general? I just don't see it. Nations act selfishly, with good reason. This Nobel was a political stunt, plain and simple. It won't help mend our internal divides either, that's for sure.

 

[LuciferSam]

How so? Has this new found perception helped with Iran, has it brought more NATO troops to help in Afghanistan, has it helped with North Korea's nuclear ambitions or china's control over it's currency, has it improved relations in general? I just don't see it. Nations act selfishly, with good reason. This Nobel was a political stunt, plain and simple. It won't help mend our internal divides either, that's for sure.

How so what?? Are you asking how receiving this award this award is a good thing? Are you disagreeing with the idea that citizens from other countries treat us more hospitably when abroad? Whether those are important or not, those are the issues I addressed in my post. I also made it clear that I realize as a nation we're kind of f___d at the moment.

 

[Lynnie]

I haven't traveled abroad since President Obama has been in office, but have traveled extensively my entire life and never felt danger, even when in a dangerous situation. There have always been countries whose relationship with the US (as well as other nations) have waxed and waned. When I lived in France, we (USA) weren't wildly popular, but I experienced no issues.

I arrived in Atlanta just a couple of days after the terrorists were apprehended in London. I traveled from Scandinavia and left friends there who were also traveling through London. The graffiti on the buildings in Norway against the US and allied nations was a shame - they uglied up their own country in protest. But, I experienced no issues because I am an American. We stayed with Norwegian friends who recognized that they had never been threatened or attacked by terrorists and they would certainly call on the US and allies if there were ever attacked........not to mention the fact that we would be there if called upon.

I had more issues back in France that same year when I was placed at the end of the line to check in for my flight to Italy. Anyone checking in traveling on a US or British Passport were treated in this fashion. I can say that speaking candidly while traveling in certain countries has helped people understand the USA as well as helped me learn more and understand their culture more........the stuff that isn't on CNN, in other words.

I think every President has spoken of peace and truly wanted peace as well as safety for the US as well as the world. Again, congratulations to President Obama. I do hope his speeches of hope and change for the world do come to fruition. I am not excited about his prize. I am indifferent.

Can someone receive the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously? I can think of a few whose actions did indeed bring peace.

 

[poppy]

How so? Has this new found perception helped with Iran, has it brought more NATO troops to help in Afghanistan, has it helped with North Korea's nuclear ambitions or china's control over it's currency, has it improved relations in general? I just don't see it. Nations act selfishly, with good reason. This Nobel was a political stunt, plain and simple. It won't help mend our internal divides either, that's for sure.

You may or may not agree with the committee's decision, you may or may not agree the President has earned it, but you will have to agree it has been fun watching the Republicans go ape sh*t over it. This should be the winner of a sixth Nobel category for entertainment.

 

[Lake View Too]

Maybe we all should just remember that Barak Obama didn't seek this award, didn't campaign for this award, and sincerely didn't think he deserved this award. In reality, he truly had nothng to do with the fact that world opinion, according to the Nobel Prize Judges, of his presidency (so far) is favorable. Can't you naysayers come up with something better?

 

[Lynnie]

You may or may not agree with the committee's decision, you may or may not agree the President has earned it, but you will have to agree it has been fun watching the Republicans go ape sh*t over it. This should be the winner of a sixth Nobel category for entertainment.

I think it's been interesting to see the reaction of people regardless of party affiliation or nationality.

 

[30ashopper]

Maybe we all should just remember that Barak Obama didn't seek this award, didn't campaign for this award, and sincerely didn't think he deserved this award. In reality, he truly had nothng to do with the fact that world opinion, according to the Nobel Prize Judges, of his presidency (so far) is favorable. Can't you naysayers come up with something better?

That's an important point, I don't think anyone here is blaming the President for this, why would they. For me it's been the reaction by people to this, particularly those that are his supporters. Some have commented honestly that this was premature, which I think is well founded, others are defending the committee's dicision.

I guess for me, it comes down to something pretty simple - we didn't need this now. I'm sure the Nobel folks knew this would stir the poltical pot here in the states, what were they thinking? That's where the criticism seems to be aimed, afaict.

 

[Teresa]

Maybe we all should just remember that Barak Obama didn't seek this award, didn't campaign for this award, and sincerely didn't think he deserved this award. In reality, he truly had nothng to do with the fact that world opinion, according to the Nobel Prize Judges, of his presidency (so far) is favorable. Can't you naysayers come up with something better?

thank you for making this point.
it is a really important one. unfortunately many will never know or care to know these facts.

sadly, many Americans will never understand the contributions given by Nobel Peace prize nominees and recipients. they will never know about such a process, they will never understand its significance or care to. No, you do not have to be thrilled with the selection - but why not open your mind to what this selection means.. do a little homework and try to understand just a little bit about what goes into the nominations, and selection by a panel of judges in Norway - surely there is something that can be learned about the contributions of recipients. Surely we can all learn something about how people work in many different ways to make a real difference in the world (all the nominees have contributed greatly in many different ways). Perhaps it is worth a look, even if its not quite as entertaining as American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.

The NPP committee isn't really interested in the divided politics in America. they aren't really concerned about yours or my opinion or support. They made a selection based on their extensive evaluation, and upon what they judged to be good and timely. It is not a freaking democratic process. But it does involve nominations from all over the world. it is quite a high honor for every single recipient - one recipient does not outshine others. they are all important in their own ways. at least in the eyes of many around the globe who care and seek to know and understand the meaning of a Nobel Peace Prize. every recipient is deserving.. for that matter - every nominee (with the exception of a very few inappropriate nominations which were not accepted by the committee) has contributed so much that we will never know about. because we choose not to know or care or give it an ounce of consideration, unless of course we are politically insulted by the selection.

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is a tribute to America's voters.

Americans may not fully appreciate how completely they changed our relations to the rest of the world when they voted to elect Barack Obama last November. The rest of the world does. We should consider Barack Obama's Nobel peace prize as a giant gesture of gratitude.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/obamas-nobel-prize-is-rea_b_316375.html​

 

[Bob]

From MLK's speech, "Beyond Vietman"

After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?

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So MLK also spoke out against US foreign policy.

.

Karzai's government is corrupt. it would fold in ten days were we to leave. we are checkmated in afghanistan.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Thanks, Tootsie. I, too, wish people would choose to be open minded about this, and accept that it is a positive gesture and a huge honor...and be gracious about it.

Can't we all realize that all Americans, in fact, the entire world... can benefit from it, if we will just stop the internal bickering. What is so important that we are allowing everything to divide us? To cheer when our country loses the Olympic bid, and now to ridicule the Nobel Peace Prize. What are we thinking?

I often think how much could be accomplished if the negative energy that is sent forth over the airwaves 24 7 was turned, instead, into positive energy to bring peace, feed hungry people, especially children, educate those who can not read, heal those who are sick and dying...stop the wars, help people save their homes...stop domestic violence and eliminate drug use and sales that result in innocent children being burned almost to death in a meth fire...help elderly people who are sick and frightened, save the beaches from the oil rigs, and the rest of the environment from the oil cartels...

I just saw an interview with some of the marines and army troops who survived that horrific attack a couple of days ago; eight of them died and the insurgents overran their lonely outpost...they were surrounded, the young soldier said, 360 degrees...and they had wounded they could not evacuate.

In the middle of the fire fight, they started giving blood to the wounded to keep them alive--Think about that image: you are on the side of a frigidly cold mountain, gun fire is coming at you from every direction; your buddies are dying on both sides of you; and there is no way for help to reach you--you are firing a weapon with one hand, while your blood drips into an IV that is hooked up to another team mate who is about to die. It is an image that will keep me awake tonight--and I wish it would keep a lot of people awake; maybe then, people would be provoked into doing something positive to make a difference that really matters.

I think we should all be ashamed to know how we carp at one another as we sit here safely in our houses arguing about Rush or Keith's latest escapade, while some 23 year olds are dying trying to hold outposts in those unforgiving mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq...and the rest of them are giving the wounded their blood to try and keep them alive until the medivac choppers can get to them...and the brave pilots of those choppers are taking greater and greater risks to reach them before they are killed. And when they finally get them to a field hospital, the doctors and nurses are so exhausted from combat that they operate on auto pilot--it's the only way they can survive what they see every day.

We need all the positiveness we can find in this world and when the the Nobel Committee offered us a gift yesterday by honoring the President the American people elected; what do so many of us do? Make light of it, say it's undeserved, ridicule President Obama and the Nobel Committee..FTLOG, who are we to question the Nobel Committee? The behavior is disturbing and sad IMO, and as you said, so many will never really learn what it all means.

We have our priorities all out of whack and we need to wake up and realize that we need to work together.
Sometimes lately, I think the terrorists have already won--they killed many people on 9-11...and for awhile, we were all Americans. But now, it seems that even if they did not kill us all that day--we have let all the things that happened since slowly eat away at our sense of country and humanity...our very sense of what it means to be an American...instead, we are labeling each other in a derogatory way simply because we have a difference of opinion about politics!

Those young men on that mountainside didn't ask each other are you a conservative or a liberal, they did not care if one is black and another white or brown, they have no idea what some insanely ridiculous talk show host said today...they were too busy trying to stay alive, following orders, fighting for America-- for all of us--and mostly for each other, because that's all they really have.

They all deserve more than what we are offering them right now--and so do the people who are dying from lack of health care because they do not have the money to pay for the insurance.

These are the important things I believe--and I wonder what it will take for us to realize how much better we could all be if we took a different approach to a lot of these issues, and exhibited some compassion and love for everyone.