Comments on: A peace prize for the president of war

By: gef05

gef05 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:31:56 +0000

Clarification of my earlier post: He wasn’t an elected official of the federal senate - the folks who cast the vote. I guess he was something in his home state, but no more than that (a senator in the state house?).

Whatever, the urban myth of Obama (voting No) is a persistent one…

By: hof

hof — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:21:30 +0000

dont forget that other peacemaker who was nominated for the nobel peace prize: Adolf Hitler.

By: gef05

gef05 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:29:11 +0000

@Victoria

“What you don’t seem to get, Jeff, is that President Obama was the only American Senator to have the guts to vote against going to war in Iraq;”

So he voted 21 times?

Oh, wait. He wasn’t even an elected official at the time. Oops!

Maybe you have another vote in mind?

By: Rena Zurawel

Rena Zurawel — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:33:01 +0000

I just don’t get it. There was not much fuss when Menahem Begin or Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Prize.

By: CheTshirt

CheTshirt — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:00:52 +0000

I don’t disagree entirely with you, Victoria, however I don’t think it would be too bold to suggest Obama himself is in fact one of the “so-called Progressives” you speak of. The man has been nothing but sweeping rhetoric since he got in. Sure, the seemingly quashed health care overhaul was a fantastic liberal ambition of his, which was cruelly headed off at the pass by the scare-mongering and bottomless, unfounded smear campaigns of the Right, but juxtapose that with gay rights groups who have every right to be frustrated with a president who promised to end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, and as yet has not, as well as declaring himself privately opposed to gay marriage. Not too progressive on that front. His initial opposition to the war was extremely admirable in a climate where many leading Democrats supported it unwaveringly, but his sixteen-month Iraq withdrawal is looking very unattainable at this rate, and there’s talk of further troops in Afghanistan, not mention the possibility of Pakistan. All seems a bit like a conservative doppelganger of himself takes over the actual policy implementation, after all the ‘nice Barack’ finishes his speeches. I suppose my real gripe with the award being handed to Obama is that whilst I admire his relative progressiveness at an ideological level, he hasn’t put ANY of it into real achievements. He may yet, but right now there’s no runs on the board. Oh, and the panel admitted that voting for the Nobel peace gong closed barely after Obama had taken office, further adding to the sheer folly of their decision.

By: Victoria Collins

Victoria Collins — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:08:06 +0000

Get over yourself, Jeff Sparrow. President Obama didn’t start the War in Afghanistan or the War in Iraq; he’s just trying to extricate America from them without too much collateral damage to the countries’ inhabitants, and the hopeful provision of some amenities before the troops pull out. He also would not like the Taliban taking over again and providing a safe haven again for Al Qaeda, and a jumping-off point to attack Pakistan, and, generally, to be able to destabilise the region as they surge towards their global caliphate. Anyone, and any group, willing to sacrifice their own life as a suicide bomber to achieve their group’s goals needs stiff opposition, as opposed to laying down like an obsequious dog as they get rolled over and kicked, which appears to be what you are advocating by saying that Pres. Obama should pull the troops out of Afghanistan(and Iraq, which he is already doing, remember?)
What you don’t seem to get, Jeff, is that President Obama was the only American Senator to have the guts to vote against going to war in Iraq; yet you want to forget all that, in your sanctimonious, holier than thou, way, increasingly common amongst so-called Progressives in the political diaspora. No wonder president Obama finds it hard to get a consensus on anything and move forward with his agenda; he is being attacked from both Left and Right. Fair dinkum, sometimes I think that there are those in the ‘Left’ who just don’t feel comfortable with realpolitik, and prefer to behave like juveniles searching for Utopia.

By: wyane

wyane — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:27:23 +0000

The Mongrel News: US President wins Nobel Peace Prize for “not being Bush”

US President, Barack Obama, has been awarded the 2009 Marlborough Nobel Peace Prize on account of him not being George W. Bush.

In its announcement, the Nobel Laundrette Association said that, “… after eight years of Bush jnr. taking the world closer and closer to World War III, being a Democrat in the White House, whoever that is, is a big stake on claims to this year’s award.”

Meanwhile, a White House media correspondent has caused controversy by announcing via Twitter that the President muttered, just before a press conference, “Well, that fucks my plans to send more troops to Afghanistan and invade Iran.”

Elsewhere, moongazers were aghast at the awarding of the Prize as NASA this week concluded an unprovoked attack on the Moon with deadly precision.

Astronomer, Harry Nightindale, said that the attack may spark retribution from extremist sections of astronomy.

“NASA is just an arm of the US military”, he said. “This is an act of war.”