Three Years Later -- Obama has Earned It

In 2009, president Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The release from the Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the prize based the award to Obama on four achievements. I thought it might be nice to update all the success that Obama has had on these fronts since they gave him the prize.

1) According to the committee, Obama's "vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations." Here Obama has had uniform results. Iran continues to move towards nuclear weapons and ignores all entreaties from the international community to stop. North Korea continues to build nuclear weapons and is reputed to be a few weeks away from its next test explosion. Pakistan and India also continue to build nuclear weapons at a rapid pace. Nations that already have nuclear weapons continue to build or buy new delivery systems. In other words, there has been no positive progress from the "stimulation" of disarmament and arms control negotiations. Great work, Mr. president.

2) The Nobel Committee also said that "Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics". Really? What climate is that? The one where we had civil war in Libya with international participation? The one where there are attacks across the globe by unmanned American drones? The one where American positions are consistently ignored at the UN?

3) The third underpinning to the Nobel Peace prize was "Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting." The USA still did not participate in Kyoto. Obama's cap and trade plan was rejected by Congress at a time when it was totally controlled by Democrats. No legislation or treaty of any sort regarding climatic challenges has passed Congress during Obama's term. Obama does not even talk about climate change anymore since too many Americans have now come to realize that the hysteria about tthat subject is based upon incomplete or faulty science. So here, I guess that doing absolutely nothing must have been considered by the Nobel Committee to be "a more constructive role".

4) The last basis for the prize according to the Nobel Committee is actually offensive. They stated that due to Obama, "Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened." When one looks at what has happened in Syria where democracy has been trampled and tens of thousands have been murdered but Obama did nothing, or in Iran where a popular uprising/protest for fair elections was brutally surpressed by the mullahs while Obama did nothing, or Honduras where the president was ousted by the Congress and Supreme Court for violating the Honduran Constitution and Obama sided with the president, or Afghanistan where Obama negotiates with the Taliban whose goals include the complete denial of all rights to women, or even the Falkland Islands where the people voted repeatedly and overwhelmingly to remain part of the United Kingdom while Obama professes neutrality in the face of an illegal claim by Argentina to sovereignty over the islands, the Nobel Commitee is reduced to a joke.

The truth is that the Nobel Committee was just buying into the Obama hype. They were "wishin and hopin" in the words of the old song. They got it wrong. The only prize Obama deserves is the medal they give for most rounds of golf played while important work waits elsewhere.