Keep Drinking the Kool Aid
By Scott Platton
Monday 19th October 2009
Monday 19th October 2009
The continued love affair between the international establishment (i.e. the UN, the Nobel Committee), the media, and Barack Obama bewilders many in the United States, myself included. It is near messianic, and messianism in the public sphere is deeply disturbing – most especially when it is blind. The most recent example of this blindness – this drinking of the proverbial Kool-Aid (the power
of the internet can elucidate the reference for non-American readers) – is the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the President. It was a decision motivated by hype, and a play to the nauseating cult of celebrity. He has done nothing in his young presidency to earn it.
It is not unheard of for an American President to win a Nobel; three of Obama’s predecessors won. The difference, however, between Obama’s prize and the prizes given to Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, is that the latter three all won for substantial contributions to the promotion of world peace. Roosevelt won his in 1906 for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, Wilson in 1919 for the formation of the League of Nations, and Carter in 2002 for his efforts (increasingly ham-fisted and blatantly anti-Israeli, it must be
said) to secure peace in the Middle East.
The nomination date for the 2009 Prize was February 1st. Obama won his prize, it seems, based solely upon the first twelve days of his presidency. Let us expand our survey beyond those twelve days, lest I be accused of being too stiff in terms of criteria. He promised to close Guantanamo and end the Bush policies of indefinite detention. Guantanamo is still open, and the Administration has admitted that indefinite detention is the least bad solution to the problem of prisoners who cannot be tried and convicted due to a lack of evidence but are
too dangerous to be released.
The situation is worse beyond America’s shores. Iraq no longer boils, but it simmers. Afghanistan gets bloodier by the day, and Obama vacillates between listening to his generals and dispatching more troops, and appeasing Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden by decreasing our commitment. What troops the US has, prop up the odious narco-thug Hamid Karzai and his corrupt regime. The President pointedly snubs a fellow Peace Prize winner – the Dalai Lama – to appease the Chinese government, owning as they do a large share of America’s debt (a
quickly growing share, thanks to the stimulus package). Members of his administration meet with a minister of the Burmese government, the first such contact in ten years – all while the junta continues to imprison dissidents and brutalize its people. Obama undertakes the first face-to-face American negotiations with Iran in thirty years with “no preconditions”, while the ayatollahs continue to build a bomb and launch ominous and anti-Semitic tirades against Israel. In addition, the President has decided to reduce America’s robust nuclear arsenal –the ultimate, final defence – in the hope that other nations will follow suit and reduce their own stockpiles. I am sure that North Korea and Pakistan will line right up to do so.
Obama has done nothing to justify a Peace Prize. What he has done – continuing a nauseating and un-American detention programme, propping up a tin pot drug lord, pandering to the Chinese government, giving Burmese and Iranian tyrants the legitimacy that negotiations confer, and reducing America’s last, best defence – makes the world less safe, and peace less likely. It seems that since Yasser
Arafat won the Prize, they will give them out to anyone, for anything.
of the internet can elucidate the reference for non-American readers) – is the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the President. It was a decision motivated by hype, and a play to the nauseating cult of celebrity. He has done nothing in his young presidency to earn it.
It is not unheard of for an American President to win a Nobel; three of Obama’s predecessors won. The difference, however, between Obama’s prize and the prizes given to Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, is that the latter three all won for substantial contributions to the promotion of world peace. Roosevelt won his in 1906 for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, Wilson in 1919 for the formation of the League of Nations, and Carter in 2002 for his efforts (increasingly ham-fisted and blatantly anti-Israeli, it must be
said) to secure peace in the Middle East.
The nomination date for the 2009 Prize was February 1st. Obama won his prize, it seems, based solely upon the first twelve days of his presidency. Let us expand our survey beyond those twelve days, lest I be accused of being too stiff in terms of criteria. He promised to close Guantanamo and end the Bush policies of indefinite detention. Guantanamo is still open, and the Administration has admitted that indefinite detention is the least bad solution to the problem of prisoners who cannot be tried and convicted due to a lack of evidence but are
too dangerous to be released.
The situation is worse beyond America’s shores. Iraq no longer boils, but it simmers. Afghanistan gets bloodier by the day, and Obama vacillates between listening to his generals and dispatching more troops, and appeasing Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden by decreasing our commitment. What troops the US has, prop up the odious narco-thug Hamid Karzai and his corrupt regime. The President pointedly snubs a fellow Peace Prize winner – the Dalai Lama – to appease the Chinese government, owning as they do a large share of America’s debt (a
quickly growing share, thanks to the stimulus package). Members of his administration meet with a minister of the Burmese government, the first such contact in ten years – all while the junta continues to imprison dissidents and brutalize its people. Obama undertakes the first face-to-face American negotiations with Iran in thirty years with “no preconditions”, while the ayatollahs continue to build a bomb and launch ominous and anti-Semitic tirades against Israel. In addition, the President has decided to reduce America’s robust nuclear arsenal –the ultimate, final defence – in the hope that other nations will follow suit and reduce their own stockpiles. I am sure that North Korea and Pakistan will line right up to do so.
Obama has done nothing to justify a Peace Prize. What he has done – continuing a nauseating and un-American detention programme, propping up a tin pot drug lord, pandering to the Chinese government, giving Burmese and Iranian tyrants the legitimacy that negotiations confer, and reducing America’s last, best defence – makes the world less safe, and peace less likely. It seems that since Yasser
Arafat won the Prize, they will give them out to anyone, for anything.