Nathan Scandella (personal)

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

And in other news, Sarah Palin has won a Pulitzer for completing her memoirs with a minimum of spelling mistakes. Are you serious?

Now, I will admit that I love the fact that Obama is willing to talk with other foreign leaders without preconditions. I'm all for that. About the only thing Ronald Reagan contributed to this country was a willingness to negotiate with friends and foes alike. Somehow, that bit of history seems to get lost as most conservatives recall his presidency. But I digress ...

Despite spending the last two years wiping his rear, it was great to see someone on mainstream television take some shots at Obama last week ... on Saturday Night Live. The caricature couldn't have been more spot-on. He hasn't done anything yet ... absolutely nothing that any other possible Democratic (big D) president wouldn't have also done. This man's list of broken, or unfulfilled, promises is a mile long.

But, he didn't just win a Nobel Prize for anything ... he won it for Peace. This is utterly unbelievable. Am I the only one who's noticed that since his inauguration, he's made our war effort in the middle east larger? Not only has he not produced anything resembling a withdrawal from the region, as his early campaign rhetoric undoubtedly led left-leaning voters to believe, but he's made our "war on terror" larger.

There were 142,000 combat troops in Iraq when Obama came into office. There are now 130,000 troops, with plans to reduce levels to 120,000 by November. That would be a reduction of 22,000 over a period of more than 9 months of President Obama's term. His campaign promise (and yes, that was a promise, not merely a plan) was to have full withdrawal in 16 months. I'd say he's a little behind schedule on that. Even now, the advertised plan is still to have troop levels down to 50,000 by August 2010. Even for that delayed schedule, -22,000 in 9 months is pathetic progress.

Afghanistan is another story. We had 32,000 troops in Afghanistan in January of this year, and 62,000 now. So, we've drawn down by 22,000 in Iraq and escalated by 30,000 in Afghanistan? And by all accounts, both conflicts are still going poorly.

So, exactly what is this "peace" prize for? Is military occupation now a criterion for this award? What are they smoking in Norway, because I'd love some! Perhaps the prize had nothing to do with our wars in the Middle East, and was awarded to Obama for funneling hundreds of billions of dollars of public funds into the private banking sector, preventing vast lynch mobs from overrunning Wall St.?

It certainly can't have anything to do with any conventional definition of peace. At least I take solace in knowing that the people of other western nations are just as stupid and gullible as Americans are.

Posted at 09:33PM Oct 09, 2009 by Nathan in Politics  |  Comments[0]