Obama: A man who has wrought more violence than peace

In some ways, the Nobel Peace Prize has gone back to its roots. Established by a man who invented dynamite and only saw the error of his own ways when he read his own obituary (mistakenly) printed in a newspaper, the “Peace Prize” has rewarded a man who has wrought more violence than peace.

President Obama has been awarded the most prestigious Peace Prize in the world “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” but all of his attempts at diplomacy have been at least partly detrimental.

President Obama’s diplomatic “achievements” can be lumped into a few categories.

Firstly, (to use an Americanism) the ‘no-brainers’; the ending of support for the unpopular “missile shield” in Eastern Europe, closure of (PR disaster and worldwide emblem of anti-Americanism) Guantanamo Bay and resumption of relations with Cuba.

Then, we have the ineffectual. The establishment of “special envoys” for ending the War in Iraq (only to use the troops withdrawn from Iraq in Afghanistan), nuclear disarmament (you can “strongly condemn” it all you want, but that won’t stop Kim Jong-Il testing missiles) and Pakistan and Afghanistan (one envoy for two complicated situations in two wholly different countries spells disaster) has done next to nothing.

Lastly, the underhand and contradictory. One example is condemning the Honduran coup only to have the assistant secretary of state of the United States, Phillip J Crowley, imply Washington’s support for the opposition to the Honduran president, the far-right PNH at an OAS summit on the coup.

Another example is the effective US support for the protesters against the allegedly rigged Iranian elections. President Obama voiced concerns about the way Iran’s election was conducted, yet when the elections in US puppet state Afghanistan were alleged to have been rigged, Obama said nothing.

As if all the ineffectual, obvious and contradictory diplomacy wasn’t enough, we also have the war Obama has waged in his own country over his healthcare plan. Whether you support it or not, surely you can see that encouraging people to “rat out” other people who they don’t agree with is morally wrong.

From the White House press office, August 4; “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there… Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help.

If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

To sum it all up, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a man who has implied support for coups, encouraged “ratting out” of dissenters, prolonged one war while extending it to a neighbouring country and set up three completely useless “envoys” for four important issues, amongst other things.

At this point I would say that “this is a new low” but this is the Nobel Peace Prize; it has been awarded to Henry Kissinger.