Quote originally posted by Rock
I find it truly mind boggling how very insulated and oblivous most Americans are to the sheer hell we have put the world through over the last 8 years.
President Obama deserves the Nobel Prize for bucking the conventional wisdom in BOTH political parties and charting a course for PEACE.
Why did the President win the Nobel Peace prize?
- Because he ended the policy of pre-emptive war, which basically stated that the United States can do whatever the hell it wants.
- Because he ended the mindless policy of not talking to our enemies. If you won't talk to someone, how can you make peace with them?
- Because the world was weary of America's capricious selection of enemies
based on our economic interests. A wink and a nod for China, our banker, and bombs for everyone else.
- Because after a war based on lies which killed THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of Iraqis, America has been smeared by the blood of all the innocents whose only crime was to be living in the wrong oil rich country at the wrong time.
- Because he ended the policy of torture and secret prisons and lawlessness that saw agents of OUR country terrorizing people around the globe.
These changes were not small ones and not to be belittled. . . we came within 7 percentage points of World War III, with Senator McCain wanting to take Georgia into Nato and go to war with Russia AND Iran.
Those folks cheering in the streets around the world weren't cheering for the "first black President". They were cheering for an end of tyranny and oppression from the "shining beacon on the hill".
We take all these things for granted, because the bombs don't blow up here, the carnage doesn't fill the streets here, President Bush said it plainly - we fight them over THERE so we don't have to fight them here.
So we Americans are oblvious and shocked at the impact our President has had on the lives of billions of people around the world, who once again can view the stars and stripes as a sign of a friend, and not a foe.
President Obama EARNED the Nobel prize by ignoring the "conventional wisdom" that said negotiating is weak, admitting error is weak, working in alliances is weak and finally recognizing that ALL PEOPLE are precious in God's sight, not just Americans.
Well done, Mr. President. Well done.
30+ Reasons Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
by BoBo2020
Here is a brief list of some of the reasons President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: (As a side note, it took me less than 45 minutes to compile this into a diary. It took me longer to fix my html errors than to find a short list of Nobel Prize winning accomplishments by our President. I am sure I have missed MANY things.)
3/18/8 – Obama caught world-wide attention for his moving speech on race relations7/24/8 - Obama lays the foundation for a new era of international relations and began inspiring renewed hope in American leadership during his campaign speech in Berlin11/6/8 – Obama’s victory was hailed as a promise of hope for the world.12/1/8 – Obama began plans to restore U.N. ambassador to cabinet rank.
1/22/9 - Appointed a Special Envoy for Middle East peace
1/22/9 – Ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay
1/22/9 – Ordered comprehensive review of detention policies1/22/9 – Prohibited use of torture1/22/9 - Signed an executive order to close CIA secret prisons
1/23/9 – Lifted “Global Gag Rule” on international health groups
1/26/9 – Began to address climate change by increasing fuel standards for automobiles
1/26/9 – Appointed Special Envoy for Climate Change
1/27/9 - Signs Lily Ledbetter “Fair Pay” Act
2/1/9 – Expanded healthcare for children by signing SCHIP
2/5/9 - Again addressed energy conservation by increasing standards for appliances.
2/24/9 – Directed almost $1 billion for prevention and wellness to improve America’s health
2/25/9 - Initiated international efforts to reduce mercury emissions worldwide
2/27/9 – Committed to responsibly ending the war in Iraq
4/1/9 – Agreed to negotiation of a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.
4/1/9 – Enhanced U.S. – China relations
4/2/9 - Led global response to the economic crisis through the G20, obtaining commitments of $1.1 trillion to safeguard the world’s most vulnerable economies
4/4/9 - Renewed dialog with NATO and other key allies
4/5/9 – Announced new strategy to responsible address international nuclear proliferation
4/13/9 – Began easing tension with Cuba through new policy stance
4/17/9 - Secured $5 billion in aid commitments "to bolster economy and help it fight terror and Islamic radicalism"
4/22/9 - Developed the renewable energy projects on the waters of our Outer Continental Shelf that produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents.
5/8/9 – Proposed International Affaires budget that included funds to create a civilian response corps -- teams of civilian experts in rule of law, policing, transitional governance, economics, engineering, and other areas critical to helping rebuild war-torn societies; Provide $40 million for a "stabilization bridge fund," which would provide rapid response funds for the State Department to help stabilize a crisis situation.
6/4/9 - Gave historic address to the Muslim World in Cairo - "American is not at war with Islam" Foreign affairs experts insist that Obama's engagement with the Muslim world has been remarkable. "He has been able to dramatically change America's image in that region"
8/4/9 - Used DIPLOMACY to free 2 American journalists from a North Korea prison
9/18/9 - De-escalation of nuclear tension through repurposing of missile defense prompting Russia to withdraw its missile plan.
Another good article:
Nobel could be weighty burden for Obama
Award comes despite no major accomplishments
The Nobel Peace Prize committee validated President Obama's standing as an international superstar who has transformed America's image around the world. Obama may now spend the rest of his administration trying to turn the lofty ideals that brought him the prize into concrete results on the many intractable problems still before him.
From every direction there was surprise that a president still in his first year in office with no major accomplishments internationally, save for the change in public opinion, would receive the prestigious award. In that sense, Obama may find this latest honor as much a burden as a benefit.
The announcement from Norway was a reminder that in his brief time on the national and international stage, Obama has been most successful at inspiring others and creating often outsized expectations for what he can do.
In the Rose Garden on Friday morning, he described himself as "surprised and deeply humbled" by the award, arguing that he did not deserve it but would accept it as "a call to action" - perhaps all the more urgent now to live up to the award.
The announcement proved to be as controversial as it was surprising. The breadth of reaction, from exuberant gratification in some quarters to scorn and dismissal in others, underscored the political divisions over the direction of Obama's policies and the sharply polarized impressions of his leadership - to say nothing of how politicized the prize itself has become.
Obama has won international acclaim for attempting to chart a course that breaks dramatically with former President George W. Bush, and there was little doubt among those on the right and left that the Nobel committee must have considered that as a major factor in its decision.
With his call for collective diplomacy and a humbler American style, Obama has drawn a rhetorical distinction between his style and the unilateral approach that marked a good portion of Bush's administration.
Obama's concrete actions ultimately will do more to determine whether the rest of the world comes along, and so far there has been only modest success there.
One question being asked Friday was whether the Nobel prize would help on that front. Another was whether the award, subtly or overtly, would influence the president as he weighs how to deal with dangerous problems in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and the Middle East.
William Galston, a former Clinton administration domestic adviser now at the Brookings Institution, called the Nobel a great honor but also a potential burden for Obama, in large part because it was given for ideals rather than accomplishments. "Not only will he be judged in the future against this exacting standard, but also it may complicate some decisions, such as the one he must soon make concerning Afghanistan," he said.
What happens, Galston asked, if the president accepts the recommendations of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of forces in Afghanistan, for up to 40,000 more U.S. soldiers? Will Obama lose favor overseas for failing to live up to the ideals embodied in the peace prize? "While I hope that such considerations will not influence his decisions, they don't make his life any easier," Galston said.
Presidential historian Robert Dallek said, "I think this will lift Obama's prestige and may make it easier for him to avoid escalation in Afghanistan."
White House officials would insist that Obama will make the decision about Afghanistan shorn of considerations about what the Nobel committee may represent. But the aura of the peace prize will be a constant presence in every action he now takes on the world stage and perhaps a reminder of the tradeoffs and contradictions inherent in charting a course toward the kind of world to which he aspires.
Many of Obama's goals enjoy widespread support, from preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons to resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians with a two-state solution to taking action to combat global climate change to - the most ambitious goal of all - the emergence of a world free of nuclear weapons (an aspiration enunciated two decades ago by former President Ronald Reagan).
But there is significant division over the means to those ends. For all the acclaim Obama has generated, domestically and internationally, conservatives argue that he has been too quick to apologize for past U.S. actions, too willing to talk with enemies without demanding something in return, too indecisive in the face of difficult choices.
Michael O'Hanlon, a national security analyst at Brookings, said he faults the Nobel committee, not Obama, for a decision that cheapens the prize, though he was quick to say the factors cited in the award are laudable. He added, "I don't think it helps him at all. He himself has seen the need this year to pivot from being an international pop star-like figure to establishing a more solid and pragmatic footing in foreign policy, and the award therefore actually risks setting the clock back a bit."
For all the prestige that comes from the Nobel Peace Prize, that is the risk for Obama, that it will slow that transition from setting out his ambitious and grand vision of a 21st-century foreign policy to delivering on it region by region, issue by issue, as the clock ticks on his presidency.
The Plum Line Greg Sargent's blog
DNC: Steele And GOP Have Thrown In Their Lot With The Terrorists By Criticizing Obama’s Nobel
Dems intend to go on the offensive today by holding up Republican criticism of Obama’s Nobel as the latest example of Republicans desperately hoping for America’s failure, placing it alongside GOP cheer at America’s loss of the Olympics as evidence of an unmistakable pattern.
The DNC’s Brad Woodhouse sends over a typically hard-hitting reaction, linking Republicans with terrorists:
The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.It’s worth noting that Republicans who fail to find anything good or celebratory to say about the Nobel risk doing at least as much damage to themselves as to Obama, by feeding the GOP-wants-America-to-fail meme.
You need to take your F-ing blinders off. I was going to highlight all your supposed "accomplishments" Hussein has made but my hands got sore.
So did he prohibit the Iraqi's and the talaban from torturing americans or the other way around. 90% of the sh** you listed was circumstantial and biased. Caught worldwide attention on his race relations speech???? How ignorant are you? You think that is an accomplishment worthy of, well anything??
Rock, your a punk. I could go on and on about you and your dying breed. Typical though, believes everything you see in the star trib. Typical liberal. Why won't he support Bachman and co. and open up the books to see exactly how much bad paper is out there. Oh, yeah, he thinks like your dumb ass. It'll go away,,,Or we'll print more. How bout another stimulus package? Are you kidding??? The first one has been a joke up to date but WTF...let's try to spend more, it's bound to work at some point right?? PFFFFT!
I'll end this on the Iran issue. I know it's not as pressing of an issue as the fact that Obama gave a speech on race relations but I'll hit on it anyway. So "allegedly" Russia gives iran the uranium and whatnot to build nukes. Not little ones...ones that could hit our battle ships. Time for a peace talk Rock?? F no....bomb them. Since all the liberals can't accept the fact that war forces the U.S. to have casualties too we'll drop a nuke on Iran. OOPS, sorry about the innocent little F-ers that got caught in the crossfire but they would've become involved in a cell just like the recent one we popped out east.
F-YOU ROCK. Out of curiosity, do you drive a smart car or possibly a prius?
