Nobel Peace Prize

The day they decide to announce the Nobel Peace Prize is the one day I decide to update my blog. So today gets two entries!

The Nobel Peace Prize was granted to United States President Barack Obama. This is clearly a political message.

Does Obama deserve the prize? Well, he certainly has done more to achieve world peace than his predecessor. I have also done more to achieve world peace than President Obama's predecessor, and nobody from Sweden is offering me a million euro and global recognition.

President Obama has concentrated the foreign troop deployment in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is and has been a flash point of conflict for decades, if not centuries. This is where the War on Terror should have always been concentrated. Shifting the focus back towards Afghanistan is a potential step towards world peace. Deserving of a prize, though?

President Obama suggested to Israel that they should stop building new settlements in disputed lands. Again, this is another flash point of conflict for time immemorial. Getting Israel and Palestine as well as the rest of the Arab world to stop escalating millennia of antagonism certainly would be deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. Simply telling Israel to stop building new settlements?

Awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize was a diplomatic thumb of the nose at his predecessor. It seems the Nobel Peace Prize commission is saying "President Bush did more to prevent peace and made the world a more dangerous, less peaceful place during his term of office". While this is the general consensus of people outside the United States, it is not a reason to award President Obama the Prize. The award was not for President Obama. It was against President Bush.

Surely there were people who actually worked toward peace. These people are the ones who deserve the recognition. What about the churches and charitable organizations who bring food, clothing, shelter, medicine to those devastated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example?

By making such a blatant political statement -- even if it represents the sentiment of the international community -- simply devalues the Nobel Peace Prize. "Peace" is political enough of an issue: Israel & Palestine, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, India & Pakistan are but a few places where peace is desperately sought and politics are often a complication. Congratulating the United States for electing somebody less bent on war is really not a sufficient reason to grant an award.