Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My Two Cents' on Obama's Peace Prize

I agree with the sentiment that it's premature. I also agree that President Obama's not done enough (e.g. investigations into violations of laws of war perpetrated by the previous administration or under its watch, continued policy of preventive detention, etc.), though he's done a bit.

What I think, more than anything else, is that his name was the one placed on the award, yet the award was for the American people, who elected to remove a blight from office (yes, he was on his way out anyway, but we could very easily have chosen John McCain, who basically vowed to continue with Bush's techniques), and we chose to look a different direction. I think this was our award, rather than the President's, and it speaks to how the international community views us on the leaderboard.

Like I said - it's my 2 cents' worth - so it's not too profound, maybe I'll expound later...

1 comment:

Cassie said...

My understanding of the Nobel Peace Prize is that it is not only awarded to those who have DONE great things but those who have the potential to do great things. At least that's what I heard on NPR.