Pres. Obama is in Oslo today to accept his Nobel Peace Prize, and according to this, his speech will acknowledge the irony of his receiving the prize on the heels of an announcement to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Just as a refresher, here’s the announcement of the prize, from back in October. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the President was chosen for, among other attributes:
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. 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. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Dating Jesus 
“…The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.” Break out the love beads, Man, It’s going to be an International Love fest! So exactly how do you get the 500 lb. Gorilla back into the bottle? Should the negotiation table be round or rectangle?
Gotta be a big ol’ bottle…
Helloooooo!
Welcome back. You were missed. I hope you had a great time.
(Whenever my family shows up, I always need a weeks vacation after they leave.)
It will be interesting to see how his acceptance speech is received by the international press. He’s facing some credibility issues since, after the speech, Clinton, Gates and McChrystal went through the MSM pundits saying the timetable mentioned by the President was not a timetable for withdrawal. They were saying things like, “We’re going to be in Asia for a very long time.”
Gibbs, if memory serves, was also cautionary about reading too much “withdrawal” into the President’s speech.
Great Britain, facing mounting discontent at home over the wars, is refusing to talk timetable at all.
So it looks like he’s going to keep us reengaged with the world for quite some time. It’s a nice word, reengaged, it sounds much nicer than invaded, occupied, conquered, ….dead.
Reengaged
Yeah…I like it. It’s like …..dedicated.
I love being engaged with the world, just not with weapons.
Yeah, and we leave and the afghani women and children die most brutally. I don’t see us there as conquerers, but protectors of the weak, the innocent and the arising fierceness of Afghani women who are marching even now through the streets demanding the ousting of any Taliban affliated members of government; women who are going to school despite having acid thrown in their faces; women who can now leave the house and see a doctor.
Some of the anti-Afghanistan stuff sounds like Charles LIndburgh during WWII. America First! Or perhaps those women and children are acceptable loses.
I am severely torn on this one. If we can, in fact, maintain our role as peacekeepers, good. But we haven’t been terribly successful in that and I don’t trust us not to somehow take their resources for our own benefit.
If “these occupation forces leave Afghanistan and their governments leave us alone then we’ll know what to do with our destiny – if they leave us a little bread and peace, because these war lords and the Taliban have no fruit among the heart of my people. My people hate them.”
Malalai Joya, >a href=”http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=6f9d9d44ef64ff6efecef67f8d2ff0f9″>“Afghanistan’s bravest woman.”
We are much more of an enemy to the Afghan people than the Taliban these days. And the Pakistanis. And the Iranians. And the Palestinians. And…well…the list just keeps getting longer.
….oops…
“Afghanistan’s bravest woman.”
..see what happens when you’re coffee maker’s broke?
He truly is the best thing since sliced bread! I see a Heisman, Academy Award (for best actor), a Tony, a Grammy, Iron Chef, and a Father of the Year award all in his future.
I hate to be cynical…but how does a guy get this award after only being sworn in as president for two weeks?
Your timetable is flawed. I think even he acknowledged it was too soon.
AND … he didn’t exactly give himself the award.
True. Don’t think I’d turn it down, if they gave it to me. But I might want to move to a new world, if they gave it to me, the standards of this world being too, too low.
You forgot to add WWE’s Champion Wrestler belt. You know, the one formerly held by Hulk Hogan.
That’s the one I want to win…
“I hate to be cynical…but how does a guy get this award after only being sworn in as president for two weeks?”
If I understand the process correctly, the decision was made by the committee well before the inauguration. Pundits today said it seemed as if he were being honored for what the committee saw as his potential, and as a reaction to the policies of his predecessor.
So it was partly the anti-Bush award?
DJ,
My bad on the timetable where I wrote two weeks…the ballots closed on Feb 1 and he was sworn in on Jan 21…so actually it wasn’t two weeks it was ten days.
Jay, you are correct…I think the Hulkster better watch his step the next time he’s in DC.
Why do people think he needed to be president? I will say this again (and probably again) He gave us hope and HOPE IS NOT NOTHING. While he’s not been everything I had hoped for he still gives me hope for a more peaceful world and that’s big.
Vegas710, you reminded me of a great song! Called, “Hope” by Klaatu…
“Hope, is like a lighthouse keepers beam, Hope, the guardian Angel of your dreams…” You’re right, Hope is not nothing, Hope is everything. But so are words and deeds. Peace is certainly a wonderful thing to hope for. I pray for peace, but I am ready just in case someone hopes that they can hurt me or my family. I hope that they don’t.
Excellent point again, Vegas. The stock market runs on hope. Families run on hope. Countries run on hope. Why knock hope?