Obama Peace Prize

I was surprised to hear that Obama won the Nobel Peace prize after such a short time in power. On the cutoff date for nominations, he was barely in his second week of office. And I'm still scratching my head trying to identify what achievement justifies the honor. Then I remembered that the Nobel Peace prize doesn't always go to people who earn it. Teddy Roosevelt won it. So did Henry Kissinger. As much as I respect Teddy for his creation of the national park system, I have a different vision when I think of him charging up San Juan Hill. I was more amazed than amused when the prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger, a war criminal who deserves incarceration for life without possibility of parole.

Not that Obama is like Kissinger or Roosevelt. It's simply that Obama hasn't earned it. It looks like a windfall. The five-member committee in Oslo, bending the rules to name him the winner before he deserved it, may be optimists or perhaps psychics. Their show. Their rules.

Maybe Oslo gives him too much credit simply because he has a dash of charisma, espouses values that promote peace and world cooperation, and knows how to talk. After the mean-spirited, go-it-alone prick exited the stage, Obama's commitment to rejoin the community of nations is a long-sought after breath of fresh air, equal parts warm and fuzzy. But it's the fuzzy part that bothers me. Looking good and saying things people want to hear is not sufficient.

Obama's dilemma is that he rules an empire with more military firepower than any other sovereign state on earth. He presides over two wars that he doesn't seem able or willing to end. As long as he stays the Bush course in Afghanistan and Iraq, he cannot be a person deserving of a Nobel Peace prize.

Oslo should have a rule that says you don't get the prize if you prosecute a war knowing that you are killing innocent civilians every day in far away places even if you don't mean to. Obama may intend peace as the outcome of his efforts but waging war for peace is like drinking your way to sobriety. It doesn't work.