Nobel Prize Committee Insults World’s Intelligence
By Chris | Friday, October 9th, 2009 | Catch-AllMartin Luther King, Jr. should be shocked.
Mother Teresa should be stunned.
And Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt ought to be downright indignant.
In fact, the whole world should be insulted by the indefensible selection of President Barack Obama for the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace a mere eight-plus months into his first term as President.
Okay, Nobel Committee, we get it, you were not fond of George W. Bush. But seriously, let’s look at what the Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to be for and compare it to the records of past recipients.
The Nobel Prize was established in 1901 and its intent was to award “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
In addition, to those mentioned above, past Laureates have included Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Elie Wiesel, and the Dalai Lama. All one has to do is simply match up the achievements that such individuals have made towards the cause of world peace against those of our 44th President to see what a preposterous selection this is.
Even more insulting is what this choice says to the other 2009 nominees. Those nominees include Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, who has stood up against the corrupt and oppressive Mugabe government. They include Chinese dissident Hu Jia, who has been jailed for her efforts on behalf of Democracy in that country. And they include Sima Samar, who is head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and an advocate for women’s rights throughout the Islamic world.
Each of these individuals, and many others besides, have sacrificed greatly in order to fight for the causes they believe in and advance the progress of peace in their native countries. They have faced down persecution and even threats against their lives for the sake of even small strides towards freedom.
By awarding the Nobel Prize for Peace to a man who has sacrificed nothing and faced only peaceful political opposition to get where he is today, it sends the message to these other nominees that what matters to the global community is not your sacrifices and struggles for peace, but rather which political party you belong to.
Such a message should be considered an affront to the spirit of the Award and an insult to us all.
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About the author
Chris Obenshain has been involved in Republican politics literally since the womb, when he attended Virginia's famous 1978 Convention in utero. 30 years later he still can't get politics out of his bloodstream. He currently works as a lawyer in southwest Virginia and serves as Chairman of the Roanoke Area Young Republicans chapter. As Old Zach, he helped found the blog Sic Semper Tyrannis in 2004 and has been blogging off and on ever since. He has also proudly served in the United States Army Reserve since 2002.
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9 Responses to "Nobel Prize Committee Insults World’s Intelligence"
Ah, I thought Bearing Drift was going to stand alone in the Republican blogosphere in not writing about this.
I’m not sure that there weren’t other worthy, even more worthy contenders either. But, what I find interesting is the inability of some Americans, particularly on the right (many of these same unpatriotic folks who rooted for Brazil over our nation to host the Olympics), to take simple pride in the fact that our President has been recognized by a highly-respected world body as being a leader for peace. That should mean something, and it should be a point of national pride not the latest reason for partisan divide.
I don’t think that is a fair assessment, Mark.
I’d be all for Mr. Obama receiving the award had there been something tangible we could look to to support his receiving it.
When he was nominated for the award, it was Feb. 1…a mere 10 days after he had been sworn into office.
Compared to almost everyone else nominated, what towards world peace had he done?
But then again, I haven’t paid much attention to this award since they gave one to Arafat and Gore.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele probably sums it up best:
You can kind of get that sentiment from Steve in his disappointment that we hadn’t written anything about it and now have – almost as if our lack of dissent was some sort of badge of honor.
Whatever happened to “dissent being the highest form of patriotism”?
But, again, this isn’t even dissent. It’s more of a collective, “Huh?”
Let’s hope Obama can use his new-found status as a Nobel Peace Prize winner to actually work towards world peace, but not at the expense of a strong American foreign policy.
technical Obama received the award “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” which very well may be true over the course of his presidency but at current time is premature. Sure he’s had a handshake with Chavez and is sending envoys to Iran, but as the most powerful man in the world, what is he truly doing differently in Iraq and Afghanistan than Bush or McCain would have done? How will he get China to play the proper role with North Korea? What is he going to do about Darfur or Palestine? To deserve this award, Obama has much more to accomplish and I actually hope he does for all of our benefit.
One thing’s for sure. He didn’t win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
BK-actually he might have been more qualified for that one. You’ll notice that the Second Great Depression, a very real possiblity the day Obama took office, isn’t happening. Financial system didn’t collapse. Stock market rallied. We’re still in a recession, but we avoided far, far worse.
Fantastic op-ed in the NYT today on the subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/opinion/12douthat.html?th&emc=th
Steve’s right, while the “10 day” punditry is a red herring (the committee didn’t vote until recently), honestly he had more claim to the Nobel in economics. Most economists (and my Fidelity account) believe that Mr. Obama’s actions in tandem with those of his Fed (and Mr. Bush’s actions during his last months in office) were the only things that saved us from true international economic collapse. Of course, I guess if they would have given him the Nobel for economics he should have shared it with Bush, and I doubt the Nobel Committee wanted that…
I read this.
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