TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Political Discussion / Debate
-- President Barack Hussein Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Pages (4): [1] 2 3 4 »
President Barack Hussein Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
| quote: |
| Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize OSLO -- Despite less than one year in office and leading two wars, President Obama snatched the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, stunning the world one week after failing to win an Olympic bid for his adopted hometown. The Nobel committee's decision was motivated by Obama's initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism. Yet the choice was stunning given the nomination deadline of Feb.1, less than two weeks after the Obama presidency began. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6 a.m. EDT. "The president was humbled to be selected by the committee," Gibbs said. The president plans to talk about his award at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Rose Garden. The Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change. "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee. Former President Jimmy Carter says the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama is a "bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment." Carter won the peace prize himself in 2002, two decades after leaving office. In a statement, he described the Nobel committee's decision Friday as support for Obama's work toward peace and harmony in international relations. Carter says the award shows the Obama administration represents hope not only for Americans, but for people around the world. Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office. "So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate. "This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said. The award appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama's award shows great things are expected from him in coming years. "It's an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all," Tutu said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope." Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama. "The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given to someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919. The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war. Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming. Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war on Friday to consider a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the U.S war there enters its ninth year. Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area. In July talks in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the current range of 1,700-2,200 to as low as 1,500. The United States now as about 2,200 such warheads, compared to about 2,800 for the Russians. But there has been no word on whether either side has started to act on the reductions. Former Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Obama has already provided outstanding leadership in the effort to prevent nuclear proliferation. "In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," ElBaradei said. "He has shown an unshakeable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts." Obama also has attempted to restart stalled talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but just a day after Obama hosted the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York, Israeli officials boasted that they had fended off U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction. Moderate Palestinians said they felt undermined by Obama's failure to back up his demand for a freeze. Nominators for the prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law. The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed the award on behalf of its founder Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 Peace Prize with then-South African President F.W. DeKlerk for their efforts at ending years of apartheid and laying the groundwork for a democratic country. "We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty," the foundation said. In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses." Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death. The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/200...el-peace-prize/ |
Well first they award the peace prize to PLO terrorist YASSER ARAFAT..then they skip over this lady..
Irena Sendler
There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids...) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.
In Memoriam - 63 Years Later
___________________________
..and now they award it to Obama who was nominated 11 DAYS after taking office, and is currently presiding over two wars and planning to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan with more troops. This is all the proof anyone needs that the Nobel committee is corrupted by a bunch of politically correct morons.
Wait...what did he do again? Make a speech?
I think winning the prize so early, and without accomplishing much, hurts his case. I don't think even Obama thinks he deserved this one.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Shakka Wait...what did he do again? Make a speech? |
but he's not gonna return the prize, is he? that would make it even more of a spectacle
| quote: |
| Originally posted by occrider Well we haven't invaded any more countries under false pretenses since he took office. That should count for something. However he is the first POTUS to bomb the moon so I'm quite torn on this one. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Capitalizt Well first they award the peace prize to PLO terrorist YASSER ARAFAT..then they skip over this lady.. Irena Sendler There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids...) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. In Memoriam - 63 Years Later ___________________________ ..and now they award it to Obama who was nominated 11 DAYS after taking office, and is currently presiding over two wars and planning to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan with more troops. This is all the proof anyone needs that the Nobel committee is corrupted by a bunch of politically correct morons. |
hypocrisy, I mean democracy, in action
| quote: |
| Originally posted by occrider However he is the first POTUS to bomb the moon so I'm quite torn on this one. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by RebeL9 I think we've all had enough of zionists lately. |
i think it's a genius move, it has put a lot more weight on Obamas shoulders and will hopefully guide his moral compass rather than letting it be swayed by the bullshit bellicose business as usual politics of the US government, mainstream media, and partisan corporations with vested interests in seeing the status quo continue - its a call to action, and if he doesn't live up to these expectations that he first promised and proclaimed then history will damn him.
----
"RUSH LIMBAUGH: George Bush liberates 50 million Muslims. Ronald Regan liberates hundreds of millions of Europeans, saves parts of Latin America; any awards? No - just derision. Obama gives speeches, trashing his own country, and he gets a prize for it."
he's right, George Bush and Ronald Regan should have won the prize, oh and throw in Ehud Olmert for liberating the Palestinians and Lebanese from Hamas and Hezbollah.
those three should be knighted.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Capitalizt Well first they award the peace prize to PLO terrorist YASSER ARAFAT..then they skip over this lady.. Irena Sendler There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids...) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. In Memoriam - 63 Years Later ___________________________ ..and now they award it to Obama who was nominated 11 DAYS after taking office, and is currently presiding over two wars and planning to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan with more troops. This is all the proof anyone needs that the Nobel committee is corrupted by a bunch of politically correct morons. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by tathi i think it's a genius move, it has put a lot more weight on Obamas shoulders and will hopefully guide his moral compass rather than letting it be swayed by the bullshit bellicose business as usual politics of the US government, mainstream media, and partisan corporations with vested interests in seeing the status quo continue - its a call to action, and if he doesn't live up to these expectations that he first promised and proclaimed then history will damn him. |
you're probably right, but knowing that he has been awarded the same prize as one of his heroes, Martin Luthar King, and hasn't done shit to deserve it yet, must weigh down on him.
here is a BRILLIANT article from Haaretz of all places,
| quote: |
| Obama betrayed mission to forge Mideast peace By Gideon Levy, Haaretz Correspondent Oslo decided to change its ways and begin giving out deferred Nobel Prizes: Win now, pay tomorrow. There's no other way to explain the bewildering, not to say bizarre, decision to grant the Nobel Prize for Peace to Barack Obama. Just like the reserved, esteemed Norwegians on the prize committee, we here, sweating and bleeding, were overjoyed with Barack Obama's election as U.S. president - black, eloquent, enchanting, striking and promising. Many an eye welled with tears, from Jerusalem to Rafah, at his unforgettable inauguration address, and even as late as his Cairo speech we still clung to his beautiful words. We here in the Middle East could not help but be impressed by the new spirit he ushered in. Negotiations with Iran, a handshake with Hugo Chavez, openness toward Cuba, tolerance toward North Korea and the cancellation of the missile shield in Eastern Europe. A new dawn broke after years of darkness under his predecessor, for whom the Apaches did the talking and who primitively divided the world into good guys and bad guys with his imbecilic invasion of Iraq and hopeless occupation of Afghanistan. America became less hated in the world. If the Norwegians wanted to reward a promise, Obama has earned his Nobel. If they wanted to reward a change in the language America speaks to the world, he is the honorary laureate. If they wanted to reward his intentions, that would be fine, too. He might even deserve a prize for promoting peace, but only pending the fine print on his diploma, which will run: Anywhere but the Middle East. For the information of the esteemed committee members: Obama is not a complete package. So far he has betrayed his mission in the one region most threatening to world peace. There has been no "change" and no "yes we can." There has only been profoundly depressing treading in his predecessor's footsteps. The same methods, the same foot-dragging, the same trudging through the same mire. Can you believe, when you see George Mitchell doing the rounds between President Shimon Peres' empty words and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' vacuous statements, that Mitchell is the envoy of a Nobel Prize laureate? Obama might deserve the Nobel Prize for Literature, like Winston Churchill for his books, but as far as actions are concerned, at least in this part of the world, he deserves at most a conditional award, an IOU. At this point in his term, Obama resembles only one other Nobel Peace Prize winner - the Dalai Lama, zooming around the world and smiling beatifically. Let these reservations not be seen as evidence of provincialism, because it's as simple as this: A president of the world who has not done enough to achieve peace here is not worthy of the Oslo crown. What has the new Nobel laureate done so far in our region? Mitchell Shmitchell, a bitter and lost struggle over settlement expansion, a bizarre struggle against the Goldstone report, a disgraceful silence about the Gaza siege, and the ultimate proof that there's nothing new under the Middle Eastern sun. It's not Obama who "can," it's Israel. Israel can twist the arms of any president. You don't want to freeze the settlements? Okay, never mind. You don't want to take responsibility for the crimes in Gaza? Okay, never mind. You don't want to end the occupation? Okay, never mind. This is not the conduct of a Nobel laureate and president. A consolation prize: Perhaps the Nobel will serve as a catalyst, a kind of alarm clock ringing to wake the laureate in the final minute. Unlike in Afghanistan and Iraq, in this region he will not need to shed American blood to secure peace. It's enough to show political determination, apply pressure and use Israel's isolation and dependency for the cause of peace. Israel needs a friend to save it from itself. Obama now needs to choose whether to join the laureates-in-vain - from Henry Kissinger to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat - or join the great ones, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi and Mother Teresa. It's true, no one has ever won the prize twice (except the International Committee of the Red Cross), but no one has won it on a down payment, either. If Obama brings peace to the Middle East, perhaps Oslo will change its ways once more and grant him the Nobel again - once as a down payment, once by right. Congratulations, Mr. President, now it's time to settle your debt. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120118.html |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Groundhog Boy Hold up, I don't know anything about this woman, so maybe there's something I'm not aware of, but saving Jews =/= zionist. The woman was Catholic, ffs. And yes, I think Obama getting the Peace Prize is a bit premature. At the same time, the conservative outrage over this, just like with the Olympics, is a bit unnerving. |
That old lady dont deserve any fucking nobel prize.. maybe oscars.
Did anyone notice that every Nobel Prize in a science went to an american (except 1/3 of the chemistry prize went to an israeli)? yeah, but americans are dumb! 
Wow. Even the NY Times op-ed getting a piece. Although I'm not familiar with Ross Douthat.
| quote: |
Heckuva Job, Barack By ROSS DOUTHAT This was Barack Obama�s chance. Here was an opportunity to cut himself free, in a stroke, from the baggage that�s weighed his presidency down � the implausible expectations, the utopian dreams, the messianic hoo-ha. Here was a place to draw a clean line between himself and all the overzealous Obamaphiles, at home and abroad, who poured their post-Christian, post-Marxist yearnings into the vessel of his 2008 campaign. Here was a chance to establish himself, definitively, as an American president � too self-confident to accept an unearned accolade, and too instinctively democratic to go along with European humbug. He didn�t take it. Instead, he took the Nobel Peace Prize. Big mistake. People have argued that you can�t turn down a Nobel. Please. Of course you can. Obama is a gifted rhetorician with world-class speechwriters. All he would have needed was a simple, graceful statement emphasizing the impossibility of accepting such an honor during his first year in office, with America�s armed forces still deep in two unfinished wars. Would the world have been offended? Well, to start with, the prize isn�t given out by an imaginary �world community.� It�s voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians. So turning it down would have been a slap in the face, yes, to Thorbjorn Jagland, Kaci Kullmann Five, Sissel Marie Ronbeck, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and Agot Valle. But it wouldn�t have been a slap in the face to the Europeans or the Africans, to Moscow or Beijing, or to any other population or great power that an American president should fret about offending. In any case, it will be far more offensive when Obama takes the stage in Oslo this November instead of Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe�s heroic opposition leader; or Thich Quang Do, the Buddhist monk and critic of Vietnam�s authoritarian regime; or Rebiya Kadeer, exiled from China for her labors on behalf of the oppressed Uighur minority; or anyone who has courted death this year protesting for democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran. True, Obama didn�t ask for this. It was obvious, from his halting delivery and slightly shamefaced air last Friday, that he wishes the Nobel committee hadn�t put him in this spot. But he still wasn�t brave enough to tell it no. Obama gains nothing from the prize. No domestic constituency will become more favorably disposed to him because five Norwegians think he�s already changed the world � and the Republicans were just handed the punch line for an easy recession-era attack ad. (To quote the Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, anticipating the 30-second spots to come: �He got a Nobel Prize. What did you get? A pink slip.�) Overseas, there was nobody, from Paris to Peshawar, who woke up Friday more disposed to work with the United States because of the Nobel committee�s decision � and plenty of more seasoned statesman who woke up laughing. (Vladimir Putin probably hasn�t snickered this much since John McCain tried to persuade Americans that �we are all Georgians� during last year�s weeklong war.) Meanwhile, the prize makes every foreign-policy problem Obama faces seem ever so slightly more burdensome. Now he�s the Nobel laureate who has to choose between escalating a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan or ceding ground to a theocratic mafia. He�s the Nobel laureate who�ll either have to authorize military strikes against Iran or construct an effective, cold-war-style deterrence system for the Middle East. He�s the Nobel laureate who�ll probably fail, like every U.S. president before him, to prod Israelis and Palestinians toward a comprehensive settlement. At the same time, the prize leaves Obama more open to ridicule. It confirms, as a defining narrative of his presidency, the gap between his supporters� cloud-cuckoo-land expectations and the inevitable disappointments of reality. It dovetails perfectly with the recent �Saturday Night Live� sketch in which he was depicted boasting about a year�s worth of nonaccomplishments. And it revives and ratifies John McCain�s only successful campaign gambit � his portrayal of Obama as �the world�s biggest celebrity,� famous more for being famous than for any concrete political accomplishment. Great achievements may still await our Nobel president. If Obama goes from strength to strength, then this travesty will be remembered as a footnote to his administration, rather than a defining moment. But by accepting the prize, he�s made failure, if and when it comes, that much more embarrassing and difficult to bear. What�s more, he�s etched in stone the phrase with which critics will dismiss his presidency. Slick Willie. Tricky Dick. Jimmy �Malaise� Carter. Dubya the Incompetent. And now Barack Obama, Nobel laureate. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jerZ07002 Did anyone notice that every Nobel Prize in a science went to an american (except 1/3 of the chemistry prize went to an israeli)? yeah, but americans are dumb! |
o
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Kinezi They are mostly first generation migrants from Asia, not blondes. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Shakka Wow. Even the NY Times op-ed getting a piece. Although I'm not familiar with Ross Douthat. |
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.