It's One Thing To Win A Nobel Peace Prize, Another To Earn It

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

It's One Thing To Win A Nobel Peace Prize, Another To Earn It
posted with permission from: http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-one-thing-to-win-nobel-peace-prize.html

It is ironic but President Obama will accept his Nobel Peace Prize just a week after escalating the Afghanistan War.

This 8 1/2 year old open ended war is rapidly escalating and it will also take the U.S. military deeper into Pakistan. In addition, Mr. Obama is fighting the Iraq War, while the CIA is conducting its secret operations including seizing suspects and torturing them.

But it's not too late for Mr. Obama. He could rise to the stature of some other Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. <1964>, Elie Wiesel <1986> and Nelson Mandela <1993> and actually bring peace.

Instead of escalating one war and continuing the other, Mr. Obama could call for a cease fire in Iraq and Afghanistan. He could then invite all the combatants of each war into one place and negotiate settlements. If his peace effort fails people can always fight again, which is where we are now.

But sitting down together is how most wars end and it is most likely how these wars will eventually end. Mr. Obama can do it now, before more lives are lost or families destroyed and before America fights its way into moral and fiscal bankruptcy.

But he needs encouragement from you and me. He listened carefully to his military advisers and now he needs to hear from us. As U.S. citizens, we must speak for the voiceless, nameless, faceless victims of our country.

We can also speak for the welfare of our nation's military families who bear the brunt of its brutal actions. Their children, our soldiers are sent to kill and be killed. Many others return from the bloody battles, severely injured, or emotionally damaged, as the U.S. tries to force other nations to do as they are told.

How can anyone reconcile this with peace? With justice? With love? This is the time for Mr. Obama to rise to the occasion and offer the world peace and its children the promise of a better tomorrow.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Obama is bringing the war in Iraq to an end

I also expect most US troops to be out of Afghanistan by 2011.

I'd say that's pretty peaceful.

He deserves the award.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

2. How about the contractors....

We still don’t know’ how many contractors US employs in Iraq, Afghanistan
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/commission-we-know-contractors-employs-iraq-afghanistan/

snip:
The Pentagon in April counted about 160,000 contractors mainly in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait but Central Command recorded more than 242,000 contractors a month earlier, he said.
-----------
Almost a private army.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Hopefully they will be gone also. nt

[Duende azul]

14. "Hopefully" - lol

[Cali_Democrat]

21. Well if they aren't gone then I feel that Obama will have not lived up to expectations.

[timeforpeace]

5. Actually The Surge did that. It was in all the papers.

[ThomCat]

7. It doesn't take 3 more years to end a war.

You could FIGHT a whole new war in 3 years.

Ending a war takes an order to start bringing troupes home, and as we saw in Vietnam, once they finally have the courage to give that order, ending war takes only a few months.

We could have ended this war last spring if Obama wanted to end this war. The truth is that Obama doesn't want to end the war. He's playing political games, and you're falling for them.

If you really think that ending a war requires YEARS, then you're a fool.

[Duende azul]

15. Can we hold you accountable in 2011?

Will you still be around to explain why it is as it will be by then?
Ya know, it's hard to rely on the "hope" of some posters on the internet in questions of war and peace.

I really would prefer a date given by Obama himself.
And that date not put in doubt by his Secretary of State and his Secretary of Defense nor ridiculed by the fucking general who is in charge of the killing.

[Cali_Democrat]

22. Absolutely you can hold me accountable

By all means :hi:

[stray cat]

4. And you and I are unlikely to do either!

DO we have any DUers noble peace price winners or earners?

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

18. What does your comment have to do with the president contributing to a more...

..peaceful planet?

[Ildem09]

6. He shouldnt have gotten it so early

The nominations had to be made by Feb, a month and half into his administration, While I like Obama, I have serious serious issues with his policies I was aware of them when i voted for him. but it's the catch-22 of voting for evil of two lessers. If he would have been nominated in 2017 judging the breadth of his administration I think would have lended far more credence to the award.

[MineralMan]

8. It's one thing to criticize a Nobel Prize winner,

and another to be one.

[jgraz]

10. Now THIS is a new low in Obamapology.

You can't criticize Dear Leader because HE has a Nobel Prize and you don't. Un-freaking-believable.

[PurityOfEssence]

16. Oooh, I like that epithet; it's the bleating of a Barackolyte

He's good because I said he's good, and if he isn't good, then I'm not good, and since it simply can't be the case that I'm not good, his actions must all be good, no matter what they may be.

It's chess! It's a dazzling outflanking! It's the possible wrapped up in the hopeful and floating gracefully on the pure sublimity of future greatness itself! Time will tell! You'll see!

He's the Pied Piper of Oslo, and don't you forget it.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

19. I really like your comment...

..you have quite the way with words.

[JonQ]

13. So had, hypothetically of course

bush won, would we be unable to criticize that move?

[Bluebear]

17. Wow.

[Forkboy]

20. You poor, sad, demented urban pustule.

No offense, I just heard that line and really wanted to use it, and this was my first and best chance....

[BeFree]

9. Indeed

At his acceptance speech, he could call for Peace talks.
Why not? Its the right place at the right time. It would be amazing, and well noticed and he'd at least have a reason to then accept the award.

[Toasterlad]

11. Clearly.

[cowcommander]

12. He should've refused it

Say something like how he can't accept this award yet until we've finally pulled our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq completely. It would've been the right thing to do.