On Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

National Review Online’s
The Agenda Blog

Published: Friday October 9, 2009
by: Reihan Salam

http://agenda.nationalreview.com/

The Agenda, which focuses on debates by the Obama White House and conservatives, is written by Reihan Salam. Mr. Salam, who works at the New America Foundation, writes on politics, culture, and technology. A few of Salam’s creditials include previous associate editor at The Atlantic, a producer for NBC News, worked for the New York Times, a research associate at the Council of Foreign Relations and a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. He also writes regularly for Forbes.com, The Daily Beast, Slate, and Foreign Policy, and is the editor of The American Scene.

Mr. Salam is criticizing the Nobel Peace Prize committee for choosing President Barack Obama for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. I think Mr. Salam’s intended audiences are conservatives.

Mr. Salam is amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee chose President Obama. He even goes on say that he agreed with the Committee’s 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights activist, but does not know “why” President Obama won, when there are so many human rights activists out there who deserve to win.

I have to admit that when my husband first told me on Friday morning that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I too was surprised, as was my husband. We both asked ourselves, “What did he do?” I did not know much about the kind of things President Obama, might have been involved with, which would have caught the attention of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

Apparently, Mr. Salam and I are both ignorant on “why” the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually according to Alfred Nobel’s will, "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Nobel officials said their stunning pick was meant to build momentum behind President Obama's initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

President Obama is not being recognized for any life long break through, but rather for his courageous efforts toward the peaceful cooperation between all nations. That is “why” President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and that is “why” he deserves it.