Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I was planning to meet the team for a four hour training ride this morning but the seemingly never ending rain has quashed that idea. So before I climb on the rollers and trainer, I thought I'd write a few thoughts on President Obama's reception of the Nobel Peace Prize. For those who are polarized on both sides of the issue, you probably want to stop reading now (of course, by writing this I virtually guarantee that you won't) as I expect that I'll support neither position and likely say things that you'll both agree with and disagree with. This means everyone will be mad at me for something I've said and I'll catch grief from both ends. Such is life in the middle.

I was tempted to write about this when the Prize was first announced but both the firestorm of controversy and my usual desire to see how things play out convinced me to wait a bit before committing my thoughts to paper (on in this case, electronic media). As I've given the award some thought I've come to a few conclusions.

First, the Prize was awarded by a group not connected to President Obama. I was a bit dismayed by some of the conservative reaction that seemed to blame the President for receiving the Prize. Unless he somehow manipulated the Nobel committee from afar, I think he was just as surprised as anyone to learn that he had been awarded the honor. Was that award a bit premature? Perhaps (though I'll speak to that in just a bit), but that's not the President's fault. I think he acknowledged in his acceptance speech that he has much to do to "earn" the award.

The Nobel committee has always been a bit odd with this prize. Unlike the other five Nobel prizes which award accomplishments in their respective fields, the Peace prize has historically been awarded for reasons that are often times more nebulous. The two previous American Presidents to win the award, T. Roosevelt and Wilson, were men whose approach to peace were complex. T. Roosevelt, who won the prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese war, also advocated a muscular American military presence both before and during his administration. Wilson, who ran on the promise of keeping the United States out of World War I (but was eventually swayed by public opinion generated in part by the work and speeches of one Theodore Roosevelt), put together the idea of the League of Nations and tried to create a just peace following the war but failed in the later and had the former rejected by his own people. The Nobel Peace prize is, at times, awarded for what a person has done but it it is also frequently awarded for the hope of what a person will do or for the symbol the person becomes or represents. In this are probably lessons on the nature of peace itself.

It is in these last two senses that I think the committee acted in awarding President Obama the prize. The hope is that the President will take a different approach in his diplomacy that the previous administration. In a way, I see the giving of the prize as one final European rejection of the Bush Administration's policy of American unilateralism. In this sentiment, I think the committee has been petty. Bush and his advisors are gone. We all understand that the governments and intelligentsia of Europe didn't like him. There was no need for a final "don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out" type of statement. Yet the hope in Europe is that the new administration will take a different approach; one that is more inclusive, less impulsive and less confrontational. Interestingly enough, the presentation ceremony cane just days after the President's announcement to increase the number of troops in the conflict in Afghanistan.

The second point that I think can be made is that while I do believe that the Prize was given to President Obama in the hope of the new approach he may be taking, I also believe that it was given in the recognition of the fact that he stands as a symbol of how quickly change can take place and how rapidly justice can come about through the actions of those committed to peace. Here I believe that the Peace prize was, in a way, a second prize awarded to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That America has elected a black president only two generations after Dr. King marched and spoke out against the institutionalized policies of racial inequity is a powerful symbol to all of those who wonder if things might ever change for the better. The awarding of the Peace prize to President Obama sends a powerful message to all those who fight injustice and violence in the world that while progress in the moment may seem very slow, the transformation they are seeking to bring about may occur in ways they would never have imagined possible. Dr. King's dream was that children of all colors could play together in peace. I wonder if he would have imagined that within forty years of his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial there would be enough political will in America to elect a black man as its leader.

Another interesting thing is the reaction here at home to Obama's acceptance speech. A number of conservative politicians from Newt Gingrich to Sarah Palin (and I use the word politician liberally in regards to Mrs. Palin) have praised the President's remarks. In them he puts forward the ideas of both American exceptionalism and the need for America to act vigorously in using military force to ensure peace and stability in the world. There are two comments I would make here. First, many conservatives are saying that Obama is saying the same thing as President Bush did and, as such, his remarks are a confirmation of his policies. I would disagree with this. Saying that America has a role in insuring world peace through the use of military force is not the same as saying that America has the lead role and that the rest of the world can go to hell if it doesn't agree with how we choose to assert that role. Secondly, I profoundly disagree with President Obama's statement that violence can be used to create good. I believe that violence and force are often necessary to restrain evil and will need to be used to stop others from inflicting injustice on those who are weaker. I believe that force and violence, in doing this, can be used to create a space wherein good can take place or structures can be created that will lead to better circumstances. But violence and force will not create good. Good can only be created through the positive action and agency of those committed to human dignity and justice.

The final comments I would make regarding this topic stem from an editorial cartoon that Mike Luckovich drew for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In it he showed Obama emerging from the barrel of tank's gun to receive the medal awarded with the Peace prize. The tank was labeled Afghanistan as a pointed reference to Obama's increase in troop levels signaling a renewed commitment to the war effort there. The President has received some heat from democrats and liberals who claim that they voted for him on the promise they believe he made to get us out of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I remember consistently hearing candidate Obama say that Afghanistan was the real conflict that we needed to be involved in and that the Iraqi war was a mistake mainly because it distracted the country from that effort. While one may argue that continuing either conflict is in error, it seems rather foolish to elect a candidate who promised to focus more resources into a conflict and then criticize him for doing that very thing.

So those are my thoughts this morning before I move into the dreadfully boring activity of spinning my wheels and going nowhere. If my comments have offended, please forgive me. If they have stimulated you to think about something, even if that something is a response to disagree with me, fantastic; but don't spend too much thought on the ramblings of a man who will spend the next three or so hours in a gerbil like activity in hopes of winning a bit of colored fabric a bit later in the year. This activity is likely evidence that I am not of sound mind (even thought I hope the activity will make me "of sounder body"). I hope your day is a bit less dreary than mine.

Thanks for Reading.

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