It's probably lucky for Obama that there aren't many images from Chardarah.

It certainly seems to have some political motivation behind it, huh?

An obvious SLAP to GW Bush's face.

...and Obama's only been in office for almost 9 months?

WHOA!!!

Maybe the big outside world your narrow one sees things a little differently. Years ago my uncle (who is a citizen of a different country,) told me that America's problem was that they didn't know there was a biiiig wide world outside their borders. This blog is a perfect example of that ignorance.

I am surprised, but rather than dismiss the opinion of the Noble committee, I'd rather try to see what it is we here in America are missing.

Not doing so seems pretty damn arrogant.

For now, it's enough to feel pleased and proud that I voted for him.

Hey! Nobel Committee! What am I, chopped liver?

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.

There is a certain irony in there being a Nobel peace Prize at all.

This may be both a hazard and an opportunity for Obama. I don't believe he should simply decline the Prize, as some have suggested, because that would seem ungracious. Rather, he should probably say something to the effect that he is grateful to the Nobel Committee for their faith in his efforts, while at the same time acknowledging that nothing he has done yet justifies that faith, and that he therefore sees the Prize not as an award for past accomplishments but as an obligation to complete the work he has begun to bring adversaries to the bargaining table in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Regardless of what he says or does, someone will criticize, but an acknoweldgement that he sees the prize as an obligation rather than a reward would probably sit well with open-minded people.

Regarding previous recipients, Albert Einstein, whose work laid the foundation for nuclear weapons, won a Physics Prize but never the Peace Prize, although he was indeed a fervent advocate for peace.

Dear Sir,

Continuing on from your post of yesterday. I would note his holiness, the Dalai Lama won the Noble Peace Prize in 1989.

When I first heard of this award I was angry, but after my 'fur balls' took me for a walk, and I had a huge cup of tea , I began to mull over an idea which I would like to share with you.

I tried to understand why the Noble committee made this award. Clearly it was not for what President Obama has done for world peace. Perhaps it was for what he might be able to do. By awarding Obama the Noble Peace Prize, was the committee asking the United States, through Obama, to once more take up the mantle as a champion for world peace, for the oppressed, for human rights.

Was the committee saying to Obama the time to leave Iraq is now. To not escalate the war in Afghanistan, but to end it. To end nuclear proliferation, and to go beyond said action and actively participate in nuclear disengagement. To seriously engage in, and with unbiased, clean hands deal with the Middle East. To engage with North Korea and Iran through diplomatic means, and not through the threat of aggression. To come to the aid of the forgotten in Dafur. To take up the cause of the Tibetans, the Uighurs, the Tamils, the Hmong, the victims of oppression. To demand change from China, Burma, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel etc., on the issue of human rights abuses. To honor the treaties/protocols of the Geneva conventions

To take on the greatest war we all face, the war on poverty.

Was the Noble committee saying to Obama, that he rode into the office of the Presidency of the United States on the Wings of Hope. At a time when the world collectively faces a global economic crisis, global climate change, and global security issues, were they telling him his time to act is now. Was the committee, in awarding this honor saying, we believed in your campaign promises because they inspired us to think our world could be a safer place. We now want you to help fulfill the dreams you awoke in all of us.

In the next few days and weeks, the Noble Peace Prize committee will find out if they awarded this great honor to the right person.

In the coming days, the UN Security Council with debate the Goldstone report which identified War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity committed by Hamas and the Israeli military. Obama and the US must not use their veto power to protect Israel. They must abide by the terms of the Geneva Conventions.

In the next few weeks, Obama must conclude that to escalate the war in Afghanistan is not the way forward to peace.

Dr. M. L. King Jr., once said “...the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy...” I wait anxiously to see what my President will do.

Now he has it. Can he earn it? Can we help him?

I'm waiting for his back-to-back holes-in-one and 300 score in bowling.

But it's not really a slam on him, it's just a very discouraging sign that the Europeans are more out of touch than I'd imagined.