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Obama was in office for 11 days when the nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize ended. According to your article, the Nobel committee must be clairvoyant. Are you too blind to see it's political? They are promoting a European style liberalism in the US. It so apparent to those that will open their eyes.

 

You have a point. So the Nobel Prize is basically to rein in the hands of the US President.

That would appear to be what 5 unelected, unaccountable, socialist Norwegians would like to see happen.

What a great way to manipulate an ideological agenda... give a $1.4 million cash contribution "award" and a "prestigious", world renown prize. I'd say that buys a lot of valuable lobbyist time.

I re-read my earlier post, and it sounded a bit harsh. Wasn't my intent to offend, Bahu. 

In other words, he hasn't done anything and US allies cannot rely on him to do anything.

 

I don't want to talk down the achievement of advocating peace, but which presidential candidate has ever not advoocated peace in the "Palestine"-Israel conflict?

(In fact, outside the likes of Hamas, the PLO, and many Arab states, who has ever advocated war in the "Palestine"-Israel conflict?)

 

The Iranian regime has shown no such willingness. There are still no talks.

When the Iranian people stood up against their regime, Obama showed "restraint" and remained quiet, only to confirm to the world that he still regards the Iranian regime as Iran's legitimate government a few weeks later.

 

Do you think Obama is a hero in Poland and Georgia? What about Albania and Kosovo (where Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are heroes)?

The fact is that Obama has done absolutely nothing yet and it doesn't look as if he will do anything at all about anything.

Africa, where George W. Bush was very popular, put great hopes into the first black President, but in contrast to George Bush Obama has done and said nothing about Africa. He has not increased aid (as George Bush did) or even made as much as a mention of the genocide in Darfur. Obama might enter history as the US President who has done the least for the black race.

He allows a genocide against blacks to continue while talking about peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Like the Arab leaders he uses the middle-east's smallest and least deadly conflict as an excuse not to do anything about the bigger and deadlier conflicts in the same region.

His withdrawal of troops in Iraq has caused violence and terrorism to increase again and for the first time since 2004 not even the Kurdish region is safe any more. And for that he got the Nobel Peace Price.

I don't think Obama even knows what's going on in the world. And when he criticised George Bush for the invasion of Iraq he certainly had no idea why the Bush administration even felt the need to invade Iraq. I am sure he still doesn't know.

 

One year of Obama, including the time as President-elect, and here is where we stand regarding war and peace:

Israel: situation is worse than before, more violence, new hope for the terrorists

Iraq: more violence than a year ago, now even in the Kurdish region

Afghanistan: complete confusion as to how to continue

Russia: caved in, abandoned East-European allies and Georgia

Sudan: changed focus from peace treaty in southern Sudan to away from Sudan

Iran: gave new legitimacy to the regime at the very moment the Iranien people revolted

Africa: changed focus from increasing aid to ignoring Africa

 

What will it take to convince Obama's supporters that his foreign policy is a disaster for America and the world? Apparently a world-wide increase in violence does not do it. Deaths in Iraq don't count if they cannot be attributed to George Bush any more. That's how Obama solves problems: he just ignores them and the media follow suit.

Once the world isn't told about something, the world thinks the problem doesn't exist.

 

 

Forgiven. No Problem at all. Anyway, it was certainly nice of you.

The Nobel Peace Prize is certainly going to hedge in the Obama Presidency and I agree with Christopher Hitchens in the latest Newsweek the President Obama has done little to earn the Prize.

In my part of the world there is an ad for a chocolate called Bourneville in which the question is asked: You do not buy a Bournville, you earn it. So the same can be said for Obama. He has not really earned the Peace Prize.

As for Africe, American interests are not really at stake in Darfur so no President is going to do much except make holy noise.

The iranians have indicated very subtly their willingness to talk and even have allowed a UN team access to the secret nuclear facility.

President Bush found time for southern Sudan and Liberia anyway...

American interests are not at stake in "Palestine" either. America cannot profit from whatever goodwill she gets from Arab nationalists and Muslim fundamentalists by switching sides or even taking a neutral stance (or even ending the conflict). Those Arabs that the US need (the Saudis etc.) are already doing what America wants. Throwing Israel to them will not make things better but will create an enemy who now thinks that America will run and abandon her friends if attacked.

As for Africa in general, American interests are not at stake directly but world interests are. We cannot afford to lose an entire continent and the Africans were so far good enough not to fall for Islamic fundamentalism or to committ acts of terrorism. They are the poor the left are talking about when they try to excuse terrrorism as a desperate act of the poor. Except that the Africans do not committ terror attacks, rich Arabs do.

If Obama ignores Africa, the lost continent will come back to haunt us. The world cannot afford an entire continent to be available as pray for whomever promises help. We have to help Africa now before it's too late.

I was hoping a black President would understand that better than George Bush did. But apparently Bush's pro-African stance will remain the best America had to offer.

 

The Iranian regime is weakened by the protests. They need the world to recognise their legitimacy in order to show that they have things under control.

If Obama is willing to grant them such legitimacy without getting anything in return (and make no mistake, they are NOT going to end their weapons project for this) he will merely keep the regime alive.

If Obama wants to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, all he has to do is take out the Iranian regime. The Arab nationalists are beaten and willing to sue for peace. The crime lords in Saudi-Arabia don't care about Jerusalem either way. And the traditional Arab monarchies (Jordan, Morocco, the Gulf states) are more than willing to work with Israel and accept her existence if there is no outside pressure on them not to.

What Obama is doing now is merely prepping up Hizbullah and Hamas. That's not good for Israel, it's not good for the Arabs, and it's certainly not leading to peace.

Hizbullah and Hamas are the reason there is a war, not our partners for peace.

 

There is virtually no difference between Bush and Obama when it comes to US interests. Great powers conduct their foreign policy on the basis of fear, honor and security and these words of Thucydides the Athenian are as true to day as they were 2500 years ago when he used these word in the Melian dialogue.

Now tell me is any of the three involved in the continent of Africa.

Non sequitur. You are assuming that I agree with your statement about "fear, honor and security".

 

The Nobel Prize for Peace recognises Omama's intentions not achievements.  Further more, though the nominations closed within 11 days of his Presidency being inaugurated, the fact remains that the decision to award him the Prize has taken into consideration the nuclear shield issue and the hand of friendship to Islamic nations.

On Afghanistan I am afraid it will be a blloeeding wound as the only solution to the problem is to integrate the tribal parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the creation of an independent Paktunistan. The Taliban can remain inside thjis landlaocked mountainous country and slaughter their own till kingdom come and the world should not care a whit as along as they remain within their teritory.

Which makes it all the more strange since nobody knows his intentions.

For all we know he could want World War III and is just not telling us. I am not saying that he does, but neither do we know whether his intentions to do good are stronger than anybody else's.

On the basis of good intentions the price could be given to Joe the Plumber.




George W. Bush offered the hand of friendship to Islamic nations too, and a few took it (the Kurds, the Afghans).

(He failed to offer a similar hand to the Christians, i.e. the Assyrians in Iraq.)

However, Obama timed it badly. At a time when the same Islamic nations he offered the hand of friendship were slaughtering in Africans he could have done more good by using his apparent influence not tell the murderers that they are good people at heart but by telling them to stop murdering Africans.




That is assuming that the Pashtuns have much sympathy for the Taliban, which they do not:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/hezbollah-isn-t-a-model-for-afghanistan-15256

The Taliban are waging the same kind of war against ethnic Pashtuns and their traditional culture in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The Taliban systematically destroyed Afghan and specifically Pashtun culture by banning music, the arts and any kind of artistic expression," Dr. S. Amjad Hussain wrote earlier this year after returning to the U.S. from his hometown in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. "For me there is the escape of flying home to America. That can't be said about millions of people who are being terrorized by these self-appointed, self-anointed, uneducated, and uncouth custodians of my faith."

And listen to Farhat Taj, a Pashtun woman from the same area: "I am writing because I am so very fed up with 'experts' in both Pakistan and the West constantly distorting the realities of our people and area. . . . The people living in northwestern Pakistan under Taliban rule are being held hostage. The Taliban terrorists have unleashed a reign of terror on the people, who are not willing to give up their Pashtun culture. They are overpowered by the armed militants. Their lives, livelihood and culture are attacked by the Taliban in league with al Qaeda."

I myself thought just a few weeks ago that we could simply forget about Afghanistan. I was wrong. Obama is right. That war must be fought and it must be won. If the US run in another war, nothing will stand between the terrorists and their (mostly Muslim) victims.

Obama ran in Iraq and terrorism increased again. He must not run in Afghanistan.

Perhaps this is the real reason Obama won the Peace Prize.

An impressive list.

...and with a little more than 3 years to go.