Opinion: Awarding the Nobel for lofty rhetoric shames selection committee
By Michael Anderson
Staff Writer
The Nobel Peace Prize brings to mind great historical figures such as Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Linus Pauling and Martin Luther King Jr. Shockingly, the most recent prize-winner is our own president, Barack Obama.
Obama hasn’t achieved enough in office to merit a prize which should be given for accomplishments and not what might be accomplished.
He isn’t the first sitting president to receive the prize. President Woodrow Wilson received this award in 1919 for being the primary driving force behind the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. Theodore Roosevelt received his Nobel prize in 1906 for his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war.
The Nobel Committee stressed it made the decision based on Obama’s accomplishments in global diplomacy, and they hoped to enhance his work abroad.
The last time the prize was handed out to encourage someone’s efforts, it was given to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and two Israelis, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres following the agreement to give the Palestinians limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. After the prize was awarded, violence quickly returned to the area and Rabin was assassinated.
Obama has always laid out lofty rhetoric, but he hasn’t had time to make significant advances in his policies. His nomination was submitted to the committee on Feb. 1, after he had been in office for only 12 days.
In answering critics of the selection, Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland said that despite the risk that Obama might fail, “at least we want to embrace the message that he stands for.”
The Nobel Committee’s intentions are extremely unclear, but the award places heavy expectations on Obama, and it’s become a political liability here as he suffers criticism for what he has not accomplished.
On the day the prize was awarded, Obama met with his war council to discuss troop numbers for Afghanistan. How will this affect his decision making? Will he second-guess sending more forces to Afghanistan as he stares at the Nobel sitting on his desk?
“As we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today,” Obama said in his acceptance speech. “I am the commander in chief of a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies.”
It’s heartening that Obama will embrace the global community but remembers his ultimate responsibility lies with the people of the United States.
The best news coming from this announcement is the world is still looking to the “city upon a hill” for leadership despite recent policy differences. The eyes of all people are still upon the U.S. Everyone just needs to stop squabbling over who deserves the prize and use this newly re-discovered international good will to accomplish something meaningful.