Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

I have mixed feelings about President Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He certainly didn't seek out the prize, and was just as surprised as others were to hear the announcement that he had won.

I think there are basically two kinds of Nobel Peace Prize winners. One is someone who has, while outside of official politics, demonstrated a commitment to human rights, nonviolence, and peace. Examples of this are Martin Luther King and Lech Walesa. And former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and former "next president" Al Gore, whose awarded accomplishments occurred after their political careers were over. The other kind of winner is someone inside politics who seized the opportunity at a crucial historical moment to create conditions for cessation of war and the establishment of peace. So Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho won it for negotiating the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin likewise won it for their efforts in the Middle East. But where does Obama stand in all this?

All I see Barack Obama doing is going back to the responsible kind of foreign policy that used to be the norm before the bellicose George W. Bush administration. He is certainly not a pacifist, but rather the nation's commander-in-chief whose war decisions should be based on facts and reality, not pie-in-the-sky hopes for success. He believes in using diplomacy as a means to further American national interests. This is nothing special, as pre-2001 presidencies have traditionally and wisely done this.

No, it is clear to me that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Obama as a signal of hope and expectation. But the President was elected in the United States by its people, not selected by a small committee in Norway. He has no obligation to cater to the hopes of the Nobel folks, as honorable as they may be. Rather he should continue on his present course of taking care of America and Americans. If he does, that in itself should promote peace and human rights.