After a mere nine months in the White House president Obama has been able to win himself a Nobel peace prize. The committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," citing his fledgling push for nuclear disarmament and his outreach to the Muslim world. This award has lead to very large amounts of both ranting and raving from people all over the world.
As the award was given to him on the account that he plans to do something rather than for something he has actually done. Obama himself was quoted as saying that he would accept the award as a “call to action” to confront the global challenges. He also said that he did not view it as recognition of his own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
This raises problems on many levels. Firstly it places large amounts of pressure on Obama to bring a sudden, peaceful and smooth end to war on terror. Realistically this is going to be a very rocky process and the inevitable speed bumps along the way will be attributed to him. Secondly politicians will say almost anything to gain support. Their promises and their actions always seem to be a different thing. And as big of an Obama fan as I am I feel that they should have given the award when he actually accomplished something.
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