By HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews
Published: Friday, October 9, 2009 2:38 PM EDT
FRIDAY, OCT. 9, 2009 -- President Barack Obama may not have brought home the Summer Olympic Games from Copenhagen, but he did considerably better in Oslo, winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Already his detractors—and even some of his loyal supporters—are wondering what he has done to merit the prestigious award since he hasn’t yet completed a year in office and has only a string of impressive speeches to his credit.
Maybe those speeches resonated much more heavily than most imagined. Maybe, as a few right-wing pundits have suggested, his “Hope Doctrine” gained some traction abroad. Clearly, the president has incredible international popularity and his speech at the United Nations last month may have been the one to seal the deal, though it contained more promise than substance.
“I have carried this message from London to Ankara; from Port of Spain to Moscow; from Accra to Cairo; and it's what I will speak about today," said Obama of his peace initiatives before the UN General Assembly, “Because the time has come for the world to move in a new direction. We must embrace a new era of engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect, and our work must begin now.”
Certainly, there are a few accomplishments that are notable during his nine months in the White House, including his stance on torture and the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. And he was able to get Russia and China to go along with his plans on halting the spread of nuclear proliferation.
But for each relative gain on peace there are at least two or three failed promises made during his campaign and his current occupation of the Oval Office. He has made little breakthrough in the Middle East deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians. We still have more than 130,000 troops in Iraq and there is the prospect that even more will be deployed to Afghanistan.
These latter failures directly contradict what the Nobel Committee stated in selecting him for the prize. “His extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, also citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.
In a statement given this morning, Obama said, "I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations. To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize, men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through
their courageous pursuit of peace." [The entirety of President Obamas speech can be found below.]
Hours after the announcement there was flood of reaction, much of it predicable and mixed. Even so, there were hopeful comments from voices in the Middle East. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, believed the award could be a good omen for peace in the region. “We hope that he will be able to achieve peace in the Middle East and achieve Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders and establish an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital,” Erekat told Reuters.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the award would enhance Obama's ability “to contribute to establishing regional peace in the Middle East and a settlement between us and the Palestinians that will bring security, prosperity and growth to all the peoples of the region.”
Screenwriter Michael Russow was less enthusiastic and very skeptical about Obama’s triumph. “Whatever one might feel about Obama, he has not earned this singular award. Few American presidents have received it and of those who have, it was bestowed after they'd been engaged in something special. Theodore Roosevelt had helped to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War. Woodrow Wilson had tirelessly worked for the creation of the League of Nations -- a struggle that was blamed for causing the serious stroke he suffered, which left him disengaged in the last years of his presidency.
“I believe it is enormously premature for Obama to be getting this great tribute, which to a certain extent cheapens the prior recipients and the work all of them performed over so many years,” Russow concluded.
According to the Nobel Peace Prize website, the prize is an international award given yearly since 1901 for achievements in peace.
The prize, which includes about $1.3 million, a gold medal, and a diploma is presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, its founder. Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1950. Fourteen years later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the second, the youngest person thus far to receive the Peace Prize.
It should be noted that Toni Morrison was the last American to win a Nobel in literature in 1993.
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“Good morning. Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning. After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, ‘Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo's birthday.’ And then Sasha added, ‘Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.’ So it's -- it's good to have kids to keep things in perspective.
I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations. To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize, men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.
But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Americans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.
And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.
Now, these challenges can't be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that's why my administration's worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek.
We cannot tolerate a world in which nuclear weapons spread to more nations and in which the terror of a nuclear holocaust endangers more people. And that's why we've begun to take concrete steps to pursue a world without nuclear weapons: because all nations have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but all nations have the responsibility to demonstrate their peaceful intentions. We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children, sowing conflict and famine, destroying coastlines and emptying cities.
And that's why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy. We can't allow the differences between peoples to define the way that we see one another. And that's why we must pursue a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect. And we must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years. And that effort must include an unwavering commitment to finally realize that -- the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.
We can't accept a world in which more people are denied opportunity and dignity that all people yearn for: the ability to get an education and make a decent living, the security that you won't have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future. And even 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. 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.
I'm also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work.
These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people. Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime.
But I know these challenges can be met, so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration; it's about the courageous efforts of people around the world. And that's why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity; for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard, even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace. That has always been the cause of America.
That's why the world has always looked to America. And that's why I believe America will continue to lead. Thank you very much."
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