WASHINGTON--It is more than just a little bit ironic that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just hours before he met with his war council to consider how many more troops the United States will commit to the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Of the 120 men and women to receive this international honor since 1901, President Obama is one of a handful of heads of state to get it while still in office and the only one awarded that prize while leading his nation in war.
Just two other American presidents received the peace prize while in the White House.
Theodore Roosevelt got his in 1906 for using his bully pulpit to end conflicts in Europe and Asia.
Woodrow Wilson got his in 1919--just months after the end of World War I--for his role in creating the League of Nations, the body he hoped would prevent future wars.
In 1990, a year after the Soviet Union ended its military occupation of Afghanistan, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the prize to Mikhail Gorbachev for permitting the political changes that ended Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe.
Understandably, President Obama was humble in acknowledging the committee’s action.
“I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations,” he said in a hurried statement from the Rose Garden.
I’m sure he knew critics would latch onto the Feb. 1 nomination deadline--when Mr. Obama had been president just days--while conveniently forgetting that the vote occurred in October.
But President Obama’s soft peddling of his honor didn’t pacify critics.
“I’m not sure what the international community loved best--his waffling on Afghanistan,” U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett (Rep., S.C.) harped, “pulling defense missiles out of Eastern Europe, turning his back on freedom fighters in Honduras, coddling Castro, siding with Palestinians against Israel or almost getting tough on Iran.”
How about all of the above? Though the decision reeks of irony, the recognition is hardly undeserved.
President Obama earned it by deciding to scale down and retool the missile defense system planned for Poland and the Czech Republic.
While the Bush administration said it was meant to shield American allies in Europe and the Middle East from Iranian missile attacks, Russia saw it as an American threat in its backyard. Scrapping that land-based system for one that relies heavily on shipboard missiles makes Russia less jittery--and the world a safer place.
Ensuring the United States is on the right path in Afghanistan before sharply increasing our presence there is not “waffling.”
It’s good leadership. It sends the right message about the Obama administration’s intention to defeat the forces that attacked us on 9/11 and end as quickly as possible a war he inherited.
Increased diplomatic contact with Cuba, recognizing the Honduran president’s claim to office after he was ousted by a coup, and acknowledging that Israel isn’t always right and that the Palestinians aren’t always wrong is a better road to a more peaceful world than the ones taken by prior American administrations.
The Nobel Peace Prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,” Alfred Nobel said in his will of the award he endowed.
By that standard, Obama has done a lot in a short period of time to earn such a lofty honor.
“[President Barack] Obama earned [the Nobel Peace Prize] by deciding to scale down and retool the missile defense system planned for Poland and the Czech Republic….[for] ensuring that the United States is on the right path in Afghanistan before sharply increasing our presence there….[and for] increased diplomatic contact….[He] has done a lot in a short period of time….”
--DeWayne Wickham, USA Today
