Is Obama's Peace Prize Premature?

It seems to say more about the committee that gave the prize than the recipient of the prize.

Agreed.

In a sense, anyone's "Peace Prize" is premature, since there has never been a millenium when those who are peacemakers can rest on their laurels. Peace is always a work in progress, given the propensity of human beings to constantly see others as "enemy" who need to be killed.

We had an election, in which one side spoke of war without end as being the eternal price for "freedom," while another proposed moving to the possibility of international reconciliation after the failures of so many years to achieve "peace" through pre-emptive and endless war.

The pro-war side did not prevail in the election, which was simply the people's majority decision, but yet to be implemented.

There's a reason the pro-war side hates the President so viscerally and it's precisely because his rationality sees the endless war scenario they favor as futile and destructive to the majority's peace and security.

There's a reason Jerry Falwell and his followers never received a peace prize, despite supposedly emulating the Prince of Peace: his stated belief system was, "Kill them all, in the name of the Lord."

Some Americans need to look outside our now heavily-militarized borders, to see the human faces reflected there. An angry America, focused on dominance and revenge through violence, lashing out in ignorance, is how we appeared to many of the other 6.7 billion people on our shared planet, over the past 8 years.

Obama was being generous to our self-image, and to his predecessors, when he said that America has always been for peace. Now they and their followers ought to be as generous to him, and bask in the hope that the world, extending its good will to us, has in America finally living up to its noble founding documents.

I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture and Obama is not the anti-Christ.

We have a heavily-militarized border here in the U.S.? I watch both the left and the right news sources and haven't heard about it until now. If it is true, then hopefully illegal immigration will be on the decline.

President Obama and the Peace Prize deserve one another: They are both trivial farces of self-congratulation.

Personally, I think it's a little early for him to be getting the Nobel Peace Prize. The steps he has taken are laudable, but I find it hard to believe that out of the 205 nominees this year that he was the most deserving.

Seems to me that there are a lot of people and causes in that group who needed the money and publicity the Nobel Prize brings more that a President of the United States who has been in office for less than a year.

Depending on your definition of peace, Obama deserves his prize or not. He likely deserves it based on a definition of peace as expressed in this blog post. Ultimately, a peaceful world is simply the result of peaceful individuals; such individuals are generally not inclined to do the kinds of things that perturb societal peace. Obama may have been elected (and his election may have been cheered by many all over the world) because more people everywhere have more peace inside, and this prize thus represents an acknowledgement of this rise in inner peace in a greater number of individuals around the world.

As I heard the news very early this morning, my knee-jerk reaction was - it's too early.
Although I am a staunch Obama supporter, I feel as though his first nine months in office has been more a time of promise and potential than it has been about promised goals realized. I am hopeful for the potential of the next three years and I am confident that some of the Administration's goals will be achieved. That being said, his Peace Prize was delivered on his diplomacy efforts over teh last nine months and not his success at achiving peace.
Of Obama's diplomacy efforts, he is to be congratulated. He has, in less than a year, opened the U.S. to the idea of being able to discuss with other nations of the world; indeed, a patience to be able to listen and be present at the table with others.
That being said, Obama has failed to achieve his goals in relation to the War on Terror. Men and women are still dying. In fact, the death toll in Afghanistan for July, August and September were the three deadliest months for US troops in that country since the war began eight years ago. The Department of Defense's death toll rest's at 5,217.
The US has spent an average of 9,568,547,189.31 a week since the war has begun and we are quickly getting to a trillion dollars spent. As of 6:58 this evening the US has spent $918,584,528,468. Per very Per every town, borough and county in the US (25,375), that's $36,200,375.56 spent. How else could that money have been spent? Healthcare reform, the banking scandel, the car industry, diplomatic efforts increased via economic means such as trade, homelessness, education, helping the poor and destitute in the US and globally, the environment, infrastructure repairs. The list can go on forever.
Understanding that Obama is not our panacea; that he is not our solution to all of life's problems, I believe it best to award the Peace Prize for goals achieved rather than hopes percieved. "We will get there, yes we can" was a familiar slogan of the Obama Campaign. The truth is, we CAN get there, but we are not even close to being there yet.
I am hopeful of Obama's initial response to the gift; that he was 'humbled' by it. My continued hope is that he will refuse it and say something to the effect of. "I am honored to have been bestowed the Nobel eace Prize for Diplomacy. At this time, I must refuse this Prize as I feel I have not succeeded enough yet in the goals that I have set out for this Administration. I hope though, that in time, my future achievement will merit such a esteemed honor. Give me more time and I will work even harder to be worthy of Dr. Nobel's notice."
This would be a sign of humility and grace that would be worthy of a man who knows that there is still so much work to do. To talk is one thing, to walk is still another.
President Obama will walk, soon, but at this point, he is stilll crawling and he will be the first to tell you that.

Kurt Walker

You ought to get out more. TV is no substitute for seeing for yourself.

Naturally the xenophobic lobby, with its eternal hobby horse of hated immigrants comes up with visions of an unrighteous army of heavily armed Know-Nothing denizens defending "us" from "them" - Emma Lazarus' "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Try thinking "Wall Street" instead of some poor person just trying to feed his family, for our nation's current woes.

If you are a Christian, do you love immigrants?

If so, how are you expressing your love for them?

Agreed.

In a sense, anyone's "Peace Prize" is premature, since there has never been a millenium when those who are peacemakers can rest on their laurels. Peace is always a work in progress, given the propensity of human beings to constantly see others as "enemy" who need to be killed.

We had an election, in which one side spoke of war without end as being the eternal price for "freedom," while another proposed moving to the possibility of international reconciliation after the failures of so many years to achieve "peace" through pre-emptive and endless war.

The pro-war side did not prevail in the election, which was simply the people's majority decision, but yet to be implemented.

There's a reason the pro-war side hates the President so viscerally and it's precisely because his rationality sees the endless war scenario they favor as futile and destructive to the majority's peace and security.

There's a reason Jerry Falwell and his followers never received a peace prize, despite supposedly emulating the Prince of Peace: his stated belief system was, "Kill them all, in the name of the Lord."

Some Americans need to look outside our now heavily-militarized borders, to see the human faces reflected there. An angry America, focused on dominance and revenge through violence, lashing out in ignorance, is how we appeared to many of the other 6.7 billion people on our shared planet, over the past 8 years.

Obama was being generous to our self-image, and to his predecessors, when he said that America has always been for peace. Now they and their followers ought to be as generous to him, and bask in the hope that the world, extending its good will to us, has in America finally living up to its noble founding documents.

I wish they hadn't given it to him, and it is nothing against Obama. All it did was fuel the fire of Obama critics who already think he is being "worshipped" and rapturists who think he is the "anti-Christ." The reasons for awarding it to him may be valid (although I also think those working in the trenches were more deserving at this time), but those reasons are completely lost on his critics.

The stakes are too high for those who think otherwise than these critics to be letting them set the agenda out of fear of offending them.

One might as well have made the same arguments against Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, nonviolent though it was - and in fact, those same arguments were made, that rocking the boat for peace creates conflict from those who are firmly entrenched in the unjust status quo.

Peace does not mean being passive, it means forwardly seeking non-violent solutions to conflict, while refusing to demonize others who act or think in unjust ways as enemies.

We have a heavily-militarized border here in the U.S.? I watch both the left and the right news sources and haven't heard about it until now. If it is true, then hopefully illegal immigration will be on the decline.

President Obama and the Peace Prize deserve one another: They are both trivial farces of self-congratulation.

I'd like to see peace start here at home, like on the streets of Chicago where teenage honor students die in turf wars. Many areas in this country are a powder keg waiting to explode. It's the silent issue that some would rather sweep under the rug. I'd like to see Obama, Duncan and Holder continue to work on this stemming violence that is killing too many innocent teens, let alone those who are hell-bent for destruction.

Depending on your definition of peace, Obama deserves his prize or not. He likely deserves it based on a definition of peace as expressed in this blog post. Ultimately, a peaceful world is simply the result of peaceful individuals; such individuals are generally not inclined to do the kinds of things that perturb societal peace. Obama may have been elected (and his election may have been cheered by many all over the world) because more people everywhere have more peace inside, and this prize thus represents an acknowledgement of this rise in inner peace in a greater number of individuals around the world.

I think that the award more accurately represents a repudiation of the Bush administration and the policies it has pursued over the past 8 years. And I think that those who desire peace breathed a huge collective sigh of relief at the prospect that this nation will not invade other sovereign nations who have not attacked us and who represent no credible to us.

As I heard the news very early this morning, my knee-jerk reaction was - it's too early.
Although I am a staunch Obama supporter, I feel as though his first nine months in office has been more a time of promise and potential than it has been about promised goals realized. I am hopeful for the potential of the next three years and I am confident that some of the Administration's goals will be achieved. That being said, his Peace Prize was delivered on his diplomacy efforts over teh last nine months and not his success at achiving peace.
Of Obama's diplomacy efforts, he is to be congratulated. He has, in less than a year, opened the U.S. to the idea of being able to discuss with other nations of the world; indeed, a patience to be able to listen and be present at the table with others.
That being said, Obama has failed to achieve his goals in relation to the War on Terror. Men and women are still dying. In fact, the death toll in Afghanistan for July, August and September were the three deadliest months for US troops in that country since the war began eight years ago. The Department of Defense's death toll rest's at 5,217.
The US has spent an average of 9,568,547,189.31 a week since the war has begun and we are quickly getting to a trillion dollars spent. As of 6:58 this evening the US has spent $918,584,528,468. Per very Per every town, borough and county in the US (25,375), that's $36,200,375.56 spent. How else could that money have been spent? Healthcare reform, the banking scandel, the car industry, diplomatic efforts increased via economic means such as trade, homelessness, education, helping the poor and destitute in the US and globally, the environment, infrastructure repairs. The list can go on forever.
Understanding that Obama is not our panacea; that he is not our solution to all of life's problems, I believe it best to award the Peace Prize for goals achieved rather than hopes percieved. "We will get there, yes we can" was a familiar slogan of the Obama Campaign. The truth is, we CAN get there, but we are not even close to being there yet.
I am hopeful of Obama's initial response to the gift; that he was 'humbled' by it. My continued hope is that he will refuse it and say something to the effect of. "I am honored to have been bestowed the Nobel eace Prize for Diplomacy. At this time, I must refuse this Prize as I feel I have not succeeded enough yet in the goals that I have set out for this Administration. I hope though, that in time, my future achievement will merit such a esteemed honor. Give me more time and I will work even harder to be worthy of Dr. Nobel's notice."
This would be a sign of humility and grace that would be worthy of a man who knows that there is still so much work to do. To talk is one thing, to walk is still another.
President Obama will walk, soon, but at this point, he is stilll crawling and he will be the first to tell you that.

Kurt Walker

Refusing the prize would play into the hands of those who claim the Peace Prize is nothing more than left-wing, foreign and worthless.

That would be an insult to the rest of the world, which wants to engage us as equals. It's an insult that neo-cons would love to make - an attitude that is very typical of their stated policy of "tossing some crappy little country up against the wall every few years to prove America's number one."

Pesonally, I am getting tired of Obama news day after day after day. Today was like the "straw that broke the camel's back" for both me and my fiance. I would like to see a lot more action from the President, and a lot less air time and congratulatory fawning from his fans. He is still in campaign mode, and he is still the "not present" guy from the Senate.

Agree

You been listening to Rush again?