When I heard the news this morning that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I did not believe it. I knew the prize had become a heavily politicized award that many times had been used as a statement rather than an award for truly ground-breaking work. However, even with that in mind, I never in a million years would have expected what happened today. When Obama was nominated, he had been in office for less than two weeks and that time was not particularly noteworthy on the world peace stage. Since then, the President has made many speeches a and trips abroad where he has shared his vision with the world. None of it so far has achieved anything. Peace talks in Israel are breaking down, Iran is closer to having the bomb, the Taliban and Al-Quaeda seem emboldened, and North Korea continues to make noise and clamor for attention. None of these things have made the world more peaceful. If anything, tyrants and weirdos are encouraged by weakness and they appear bolder now that Obama has traveled the world apologizing for all the past wrongs America has been blamed for (whether we were responsible or not). This makes the world less peaceful in the final accounting.
Putting aside the atmosphere created by the rhetoric, the damming point is that no one can point to an accomplishment that would be worthy of this award. There was no Camp David summit, no armistice, no greater bigger UN that would bring about better understanding. There were just words, and “hope”. After today, those words all parents hate to hear will now be enough to qualify nearly anyone for consideration for the Peace Prize, “I tried”. It is no longer about achievement but about wants and desires. If your heart is in the right place, and you sound good doing it, you might be the recipient of an award in future years. Now, if you wish in one hand and shit in the other, you may actually get something besides a handful of shit.
- FOP Vermillion
Update: OK. How bad does it have to be that our old pal Hugo Chavez says Obama did not deserve the Nobel. Says Hugo:
“For the first time, we are witnessing an award with the nominee having done nothing to deserve it: rewarding someone for a wish that is very far from becoming reality.”
Chavez said giving Obama the Nobel award was like giving a baseball pitcher a prize simply for saying he was going to win 50 games and strike out 500 batters.
Who would have thought that I would agree with Hugo? I myself am stunned.