The Nobel Peace Prize Goes to drum roll please… President Barack Obama! Really…President Obama?

Last week Friday, I was strolling around our nation’s capital, enjoying the second day of a brief, four-day visit and I was filled with a deep admiration for our country’s brave and brilliant founding fathers. This was my first visit to the City of Washington and I was so thoroughly impressed with what I saw, heard, felt and experienced that I miss the city already. What a wonderful combination of power, reverence, dignity, pride, gratitude and beauty.

The unseasonably warm weather (far nicer than the below-freezing temperatures of my hometown Milwaukee) provided a perfect setting to enjoy a leisurely walk with my girlfriend; a walk that allowed us ample time to reflect on the words, deeds and convictions of the great men that were depicted in the powerfully moving memorials that dotted the skyline of Washington.

Then, inexplicably, my train of thought was derailed with a conversation I overheard by a small group of passersbys. One of them was discussing something about President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. I couldn’t pick up much more than that and I didn’t care enough to track them down and ask them to elaborate on their statements. For all I knew, they were a pack of ardent, President Obama supporters that were pontificating on how President Obama should win the prize.

I chalked the comments up to the fanatical desires of irrational Obama supporters or my inability to correctly overhear the conversations of some fellow tourists and continued on my walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial...two men that sought peace, but thoroughly understood that, at times, peace comes with a significant price.

After visiting the FDR Memorial, my girlfriend and I came to the conclusion that we needed some additional fuel after an aggressive hike through the city, so we hoped in a cab to find a bite to eat. In the brief cab ride, we were discussing the next few stops on our itinerary and while my girlfriend was looking for something in her purse, I barely picked up the faint report that came out of the cab’s radio, but I could swear I heard something, again, about President Obama and Nobel Prize. Before I could compute what was said, my girlfriend found what she was looking for and the conversation about the trip’s itinerary commenced.

After our sightseeing for the day had ended, we headed back to our friend’s house (the main reason behind our trip) for dinner. When we got to the house, CNN was on TV and, lo and behold, there it was again, President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. This time, straining to hear what the discussion was all about was unnecessary; as the message was clear…President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

While I clearly heard the report correctly, I still had to utter, “What?!?!?!” as it was such a shocking piece of news. “Why?!?!?!” quickly followed, as I could not then, nor can now, understand the reasoning behind this designation, as he hasn’t done anything to increase peace in the world other than making a speech at the United Nations.

The Nobel Committee said President Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” was their reasoning behind this designation.

While I will agree with the Nobel Committee’s assertion that President Obama has made considerable attempts at strengthening international diplomacy (attempts that reek of naiveté), I have to ask, what have those efforts netted either the US or the rest of that world? In fact, the question of whether the world is more or less peaceful since President Obama took office is a legitimate one.

Honestly, I would say that it is less. Since President Obama has taken office, the Iranian situation has gone for bad to worse as they may already have the technology, enriched uranium and resources to create a nuclear weapon, numerous Iranians died in a violent sham of an “election”, North Korea has restarted its nuclear weapons program and is testing long range missiles, the War in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated, Pakistan has seen increased violence after an embarrassing deal with the Taliban and some of our strongest alliances (England, France, India and all of Eastern Europe) are strained.

While this award means little in the grand scheme of things, I worry that it will only encourage President Obama to continue his appeasement and capitulation doctrine regarding foreign affairs that has been seen in the Iranian and North Korean nuclear weaponry issues.

If he does, I can assure you that peace will be the last thing that is achieved.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John