Nobel Peace Prize goes to... Obama

[The Yosemite Bear]

Purhaps he needs to take Sarkozy and the Japanese Emporer out hunting with him?*



*Teddy Roosevelt joke for those who can't get it.

[Lusankya]

Personally, I don't really care who wins it. The Peace Prize has been a bit of a joke ever since they decided Al Gore was worthy of one for talking about the environment. But the overblown reactions from Republitards makes it hilarious.

Gore won it for talking about the environment? I thought that was just an excuse, and he really won it for not being George W Bush.

[Axis Kast]

I actually think itts getting easier and easier to forget after just eight months of reasonable management just how far down the crapper the US was. I reallly thought we were going to throw down with iran a couple times despite being stuck in Afghanistan and iraq, and it looked like bush was going to go after North Korea at one point as well.

And how did you come by that impression?
By contrast to you, I was never concerned that the Bush administration might take significant military action against Iran, and can think of only one or two brief occasions on which I briefly considered it possible that they might attempt surgical bombing. Throughout the last four years, European intelligence estimates were consistently forward of those put out by the American intelligence community. The conclusions of the landmark 2007 NIE on Iran were never shared by Germany, France, or the United Kingdom, which all insisted that Iran was continuing with weaponization. Frankly, I think that very little has changed. Obama talks a slightly different tune because there isn't any further talk of "preexisting conditions" and the like, but the substance of his policy is exactly the same.

Bush's administration employed torture and was frequently exposed for giving orders that resulted in human rights violations, The ABM would ahve been the perfect tool for the next mornic douchebag to start enacting MORE serious damage to the world at large, as long as we don't count two countries being levelled as harm.

Why must the United States make poor strategic choices just because you're afraid of George W. Bush? How could a nascent ABM system -- not a threat to Russia in its current state -- designed to intercept accidental and "rogue" launches be anything but a boon? Whom do you envision we'd go a-hunting, if we had such a "dangerous" capability?
Newsflash: Russia is enthusiastic about an Obama presidency because the Republicans have always toed a harder line vis-a-vis strategic competitors; because of the perception that Democrats are likely to carry less Cold War baggage; and because Obama is less interested in further expansion of NATO. Even if Bush were still in office, however, the chance of a shooting incident between the United States and Russia would be nil. The chance for economic and political competition hasn't diminished in any way at all. The Russians, just like the United States, have their interests and are going to pursue them to the best of their abilities.

Bush's first election was highly suspect, as was his second, however his opponent the second time around simply didn't have the stones to declare a recount. in order to depose the republican party Obama had to be ahead by such a significant margin taht there could be NO doubt as to the income, if this had been a closer race they WOULD have tried to pull election fraud again.

Since you can't prove fraud, I hope you don't expect anybody else to believe this -- especially that part about what Republicans would have done.

I don't think its entirely valid to say Obama DOESN'T deserve a nobel peace prize just for beating Bush in an election and in essence deposing a questionable leader who was rapidly turning the US into a fascist aggressive state. He relaly went out of his way to make a number of historic visits even while his own country was bitching about the economic recession his predecessor had caused. he has done a LOT to invalidate objections that the Republicans have raised, and to avert efforts to discredit him by simply being human in front of a nation and assuring the nervous masses that their leader is not the crackpot his opponents wouldd make him out to be.

A fascist aggressive state? Where did you live the last eight years?

Perhaps the committee took the view that keeping McCain and Palin out of the Whitehouse was a service to peace and if so they'd have a point.

I'm not sure what new conflicts McCain would have initiated, or which conflicts President Obama has ended.

[CaptainChewbacca]

From what I've read, the Nobel Committee has decided to change the nature of the Peace Prize. Instead of rewarding people for years of work towards good causes (democracy, freedom, etc) they will now be awarding it to a person who is currently engaging in the sort of global political activity that they like. This will allow them to affect change on current events, and make them more relevant to the world.

[VT-16]

The point of the Peace Price seems to have been that ever since the start, as it is the only one not concerned with events years or decades in the past, but on-going events of the past year.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The point of the Peace Price seems to have been that ever since the start, as it is the only one not concerned with events years or decades in the past, but on-going events of the past year.

Most of the other 'frontrunners' had been doing their political work for at least a decade.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I really find this to be ludicrous in the extreme, though I guess it's nice that the international community apparently actually does worship our President as a God?

[Lord of the Abyss]

I really find this to be ludicrous in the extreme, though I guess it's nice that the international community apparently actually does worship our President as a God?

Giving him an award, deserved or not doesn't even come close to that.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I really find this to be ludicrous in the extreme, though I guess it's nice that the international community apparently actually does worship our President as a God?

Giving him an award, deserved or not doesn't even come close to that.

Uhm, no shit, but the level of clear hero worship which went into this completely and utterly undeserved award is worthy of some real hilarity.

[eyl]

From what I've read, the Nobel Committee has decided to change the nature of the Peace Prize. Instead of rewarding people for years of work towards good causes (democracy, freedom, etc) they will now be awarding it to a person who is currently engaging in the sort of global political activity that they like. This will allow them to affect change on current events, and make them more relevant to the world.

It's been the case for a while that the NPP can be awarded for ongoing work, rather than just work in the past, but usually there's more of a track record behind it.

And the President of the United States is the surely the last person who needs an NPP to become more relevant.

[Stark]

Does it just short-circuit the minds of Americans that you can win a prize for furthering abstract ideas without doing anything inside the US, or for Americans? Because seriously the people who least need the work of a Nobel Peace Prize laurate are Americans. Clearly the NPP should really be an award for 'doing things Axis and Shep want', because that's relevant somehow.

That said, it's really kind of lame to give such an award to anyone who's already rich and powerful if there are better candidates; like Straha said, others need the recognition (and often the funding) much more. But hey, picking someone for any reason other than what right-wingers think is good is bad, just like how Bush never picked anyone for anything for anything like a personal or politically motivated reason.

The right-wing backlash over this is indeed hilarious, and doubtless worth every penny.

I really find this to be ludicrous in the extreme, though I guess it's nice that the international community apparently actually does worship our President as a God?

LOL I WAS JOKING OBVIOUSLY

[Connor MacLeod]

Honestly, I think the giving of the prize to Obama is simply a message to Americans that this is the kind of people that other countries want to deal with, and the kind of mindset in America that they want to see. I suppose that to other countries any hint of a change in American mindset or politics that goes the way Obama does is worth cheering.

[Axis Kast]

Does it just short-circuit the minds of Americans that you can win a prize for furthering abstract ideas without doing anything inside the US, or for Americans? Because seriously the people who least need the work of a Nobel Peace Prize laurate are Americans. Clearly the NPP should really be an award for 'doing things Axis and Shep want', because that's relevant somehow.

I await with baited breath your explanation of how Obama won a prize for furthering abstract ideas to the benefit of somebody outside the United States. You must know something that we do not, for as far as I can see, he only shared abstract ideas ... as part of a campaign in which the candidates are expected to do nothing less. In other words, he might as well have won The Award for Saying Prettily What the Nobel Prize Committee Wants to Hear After Eight Years of George W. Bush.

[Akkleptos]

What is it, then? Cheap attempt at manipulation to pressure Obama into living up to the world's expectations of him (or make that, the Nobel Peace Prize commitee?), a reflection of the bedazzlement caused by the Obama phenomenon in Europe, or just a royal fuck-up?

Or, in other words, how is it that the man responsible for the world's largest, more powerful army and the world's largest stash of nuclear weapons gets to receive the Nobel peace prize? As somebody said: "A bad idea. The USSR threat didn't collapse due to pressure from pacifists."

[Darth Wong]

Or, in other words, how is it that the man responsible for the world's largest, more powerful army and the world's largest stash of nuclear weapons gets to receive the Nobel peace prize?

It's not as if he caused that buildup.

As somebody said: "A bad idea. The USSR threat didn't collapse due to pressure from pacifists."

I don't see why we couldn't argue that it did. The economic woes of the USSR did not need to cause its downfall. The USSR could have downsized its military quite a bit without actually becoming vulnerable to invasion. It could have maintained repression. If North Korea can remain locked down to this day despite vastly greater problems and vastly inferior development compared to the USSR, I don't see why the USSR necessarily had to collapse. There were internal forces agitating for more peaceful relations with the outside world, and they eventually caused a major reform movement, which eventually went farther than anyone expected and resulted in the deconstruction of the USSR.

This "Reagan killed the USSR with Star Wars" idea seems more like myth than reality.

[Akkleptos]

Or, in other words, how is it that the man responsible for the world's largest, more powerful army and the world's largest stash of nuclear weapons gets to receive the Nobel peace prize?

It's not as if he caused that buildup.

Oh, I didn't mean it that way... I meant "responsible" in the sense that he is -ultimately- the one in charge of it all, at least for the duration of his term, as Commander in Chief. "Responsible for what is done with it", that'd be.

I don't see why we couldn't argue that it did. The economic woes of the USSR did not need to cause its downfall. The USSR could have downsized its military quite a bit without actually becoming vulnerable to invasion. It could have maintained repression. If North Korea can remain locked down to this day despite vastly greater problems and vastly inferior development compared to the USSR, I don't see why the USSR necessarily had to collapse. There were internal forces agitating for more peaceful relations with the outside world, and they eventually caused a major reform movement, which eventually went farther than anyone expected and resulted in the deconstruction of the USSR.

Of course. I meant pacifist movilisation outside the USSR. As a cold war child myself, I know how much the Glasnost and the Perestroika catalised a whole lot of the process.

This "Reagan killed the USSR with Star Wars" idea seems more like myth than reality.

Oh, that's a myth alright. Nobody is claiming that here... Well, at least not me. Sorry if I gave off that impression.

[Axis Kast]

What is it, then? Cheap attempt at manipulation to pressure Obama into living up to the world's expectations of him (or make that, the Nobel Peace Prize commitee?), a reflection of the bedazzlement caused by the Obama phenomenon in Europe, or just a royal fuck-up?

Part reflection of the bedazzlement and enthusiasm; part positive reaction to the feeling that American foreign policy will now become more predictable.