Saturday 10 October 2009

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize


Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize, which is a little unexpected, I certainly didn't think I would be writing that so soon. I'm left though trying to think of what he's done in actions that deserves such an award, when others like Morgan Tsvangirai are truly more deserving.

I do however agree with the Nobel committee's statement that, with regard to Obama:
Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts.

The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.

Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.
Yet aren't you just giving Obama the award for not being George W Bush? Yes Obama isn't a warmonger, he has opened dialogue of more than two syllables with other countries, understands that climate change might be little worrying and of course also partly closed Guantanamo Bay. Yet he also legislated for detaining people without trial, rather than put them on trial. Released memos that show the Bush administration was torturing people, but declined to prosecute them for crimes clearly committed. Has has called for nuclear disarmament while sitting on the biggest pile of nuclear weapons in the world, not one of which has been disarmed.

He speaks of shared values, all while you can still be thrown out of the military for the crime of loving someone of the same sex, when only a handful of states do same sex couples have the right to marry and he's yet to retract the state terror/spying policy brought in under Bush.

Yes his words are lovely, so now he's got the Prize, earn it.




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