Yes, Reuters states Obama has won it.
For what? You might ask. Have tensions with Iran eased? Has he improved the situation in Iraq? Have the Taliban been defeated? Has North Korea agreed to stop calling for seas of blood in South Korea and Japan? Has Russia stopped seeking to dominate its neighbours? Has the risk of Islamist terrorism dramatically reduced? Has the Arab-Israeli conflict lessened? Has Sudan stopped oppressing the people of Darfur?
Well given the Nobel committee gave it to Al Gore two years ago, one can see the value of this prize deteriorating rapidly (although Martti Ahtisaari was deserving last year).
The list of all Nobel winners is here on Wikipedia.
Of those, surely the deserving ones are the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, John Hume and David Trimble, Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk, Sadat and Begin, Lech Walesa and Norman Borlaug (not an exhaustive list).
However, Barack Obama?
Surely, even his greatest enthusiasts would struggle to say anything substantive has been achieved in a matter of months.
UPDATE: Benedict Brogan at the Daily Telegraph is damning.
"President Obama remains the barely man of world politics, barely a senator now barely a president, yet in the land of the Euro-weenies (copyright PJ O’Rourke) the great and the good remain in his thrall. To reward him for a blank results sheet, to inflate him when he has no achievements to his name, makes a mockery of what, let’s face it, is an already fairly discredited process (remember Rigoberta Menchu in 1992? Ha!). That’s not the point. What this does is accelerate the elevation of President Obama to a comedy confection, which he does not deserve, and gives his critics yet another bat to whack him with."
For what? You might ask. Have tensions with Iran eased? Has he improved the situation in Iraq? Have the Taliban been defeated? Has North Korea agreed to stop calling for seas of blood in South Korea and Japan? Has Russia stopped seeking to dominate its neighbours? Has the risk of Islamist terrorism dramatically reduced? Has the Arab-Israeli conflict lessened? Has Sudan stopped oppressing the people of Darfur?
Well given the Nobel committee gave it to Al Gore two years ago, one can see the value of this prize deteriorating rapidly (although Martti Ahtisaari was deserving last year).
The list of all Nobel winners is here on Wikipedia.
Of those, surely the deserving ones are the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev, John Hume and David Trimble, Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk, Sadat and Begin, Lech Walesa and Norman Borlaug (not an exhaustive list).
However, Barack Obama?
Surely, even his greatest enthusiasts would struggle to say anything substantive has been achieved in a matter of months.
UPDATE: Benedict Brogan at the Daily Telegraph is damning.
"President Obama remains the barely man of world politics, barely a senator now barely a president, yet in the land of the Euro-weenies (copyright PJ O’Rourke) the great and the good remain in his thrall. To reward him for a blank results sheet, to inflate him when he has no achievements to his name, makes a mockery of what, let’s face it, is an already fairly discredited process (remember Rigoberta Menchu in 1992? Ha!). That’s not the point. What this does is accelerate the elevation of President Obama to a comedy confection, which he does not deserve, and gives his critics yet another bat to whack him with."
Even the usually pro-Obama Guardian online poll is 2 to 1 against him winning it.
7 comments:
What he's done is stood up vocally for Marxism, cultural relativism, appeasement to tyrants, etc. That's what he's won it for.
I can understand why they did it. Thatcher is one of my heroes even though I don't think she did nearly as much in practical terms as she could have, because she proudly defended the right principles.
What's wrong here is that the Nobel Comittee claimed to speak for the "values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." Bullshit. They should just be honest about it and declare themselves as openly Marxist.
Congratulations to President Obama!
President Obama probably doesn't deserve the peace prize but he does deserve some sort of recognition for not taking up that hackneyed term "war on terror".
If I am correct this award decision was finalised some two weeks into his presidency then it was based entirely on the rhetoric of his campaign and setting up his team and I saw zip, zilch, zero in all that B S to even remotely make a case for the award to Mr Obama
Congratulation President obama but i ma not happy..
It would seem that the Nobel Peace prize was given to Obama to send a message... to whom and for what purpose, who knows
Congratulations Mr Obama...i am really happy for you..
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