Robert Fisk: "Obama won the Nobel Prize for public speaking"

kinda seems that way, doesn't it...?

robert fisk...



and yet our new "war president" seems to not be properly embarrassed...

In becoming only the third sitting American president to receive the Nobel prize for peace, Mr. Obama presented himself as a wartime leader...

and he even has the gall to promote american exceptionalism...

He said that others more deserved the award, noting his “accomplishments are slight,” but he accepted the prize by endorsing a strong view of American exceptionalism.

“Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this,” Mr. Obama said. “The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.”

and afghans wonder why obama is being given a peace medal...

al jazeera...

Barack Obama, the US president, has received the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo - days after he ordered an escalation of US involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

In making Obama the third sitting US President to win the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama's co-operative approach to global issues.

But many critics say that Obama's resume is too thin to stand scrutiny with other Nobel peace laureates.

And for many Afghans, Obama's strategy of even more troops does not fit into their vision of what will bring peace.

joe bageant weighs in...

The Nobel Committee awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to the very person who dropped the most bombs and killed the most poor people on the planet during that year. The same guy who started a new war in Pakistan, beefed up the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran cops to phony US-Israeli charges of secret nuclear weapons facilities. It's weapons of mass destruction all over again.

juan cole offers five things obama can do to redeem his prize...

[H]ere are the things Obama can do to redeem his prize.

1. Get out of Iraq on schedule. We can't stop their low-intensity conflicts, and they are more likely to compromise with each other if we are not there.

2. Resist calls for Iran to be bombed. Such a raid would guarantee that Iran would start a crash program to develop a nuclear weapon, and there would be no way to stop it short of full-scale war.

3. Stop allowing the CIA to operate drones with which to assassinate people. It is illegal and shameful. The US military must be in charge of defending the country by force or we are a police state.

4. Get the Palestinians a state by the end of 2011, even if by unilateral recognition. Palestinian statelessness is the biggest human rights scandal in the world, since citizenship is the right to have rights. This step alone would solve the bulk of US problems in the Arab world and would deal a deadlier blow to al-Qaeda than capturing Bin Laden.

5. Stick to the plan of beginning a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in summer 2011. Karzai and the generals will attempt to embroil us in a decades-long quagmire. No one will remember his Nobel peace prize if President Obama lets that happen.

i'd like to add a sixth... fix afghanistan... bring in all the expert resources that can be rounded up and focus on building the infrastructure, the economy and creating jobs just as fast as humanly possible... forget about the bombing, forget about the troops, forget about the damn military solution... these people need shelter, clothes, food, income, and the means to provide for their families on an on-going basis... jesus h. christ...! why is that so hard to grasp...?

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