Does President Obama Deserve The Nobel Peace Prize?

In a perfect world, the price of all political gains would be total altruism on the part of the politician. President Obama is not even 1/2 through his presidency and has already achieved the same prestigious award as:

Lech Wałęsa

Mother Teresa

Nelson Mandela

Mikhail Gorbachev.

Now, all of the above 4 worked very hard through years of opposition to achieve their humanitarian goals on the world’s stage. Obama has not a full calender year under his presidential belt, has STEPPED up the war in Afghanistan to a large degree and yet somehow manages to achieve the same award as those noted above. Something about this is not right. 

Of course, the Nobel Prize is intended to be given with the compete absence of political influence. That is to say, although members of the committee are obviously members of some country and political faction somewhere in the world, their choice for the award is supposed to be impartial. This highly prestigious award is intended to be given in objective terms, not solely on popularity or public opinion.

And yet, controversy is not uncommon when the Nobel award was given in the past. Here are a few more “controversial” recipients of the same exact award:

Yasser Arafat

Henry A. Kissinger

Al Gore

I suppose that its fair to say that some people who “make up” for past wrongdoing can still be recognised as doing no wrong.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be a dedicated man to both domestic and international affairs. He has championed some outstanding outreach to Islamic nations and will no doubt continue to do so in his future as President. Whether this dedication on the part of our president will achieve great success is, at the moment, unclear.

It’s impossible to consider Obama’s reviving this award without also taking into account the last presidential regime. It’s been speculated that this award has been given to Obama so quickly because it is a deliberate attempt to, in some way, insult the Bush administration’s handling of foreign policy. This explanation would certainly explain the quickness to which the award was given. Regardless of its merit, one cant help but wonder how much Bush’s war on terror, the recent news concerning torture tactics and the revelation of Iran’s nuclear capacity has influenced the direction of the Peace Prize this year.

The Noble peace prize has a great capacity to hurt Obama causes in the future. Many people see its bestowing as a purely politically motivated action. Obama’s popular, hes young and has relatively new ideas. But to be granted the same award as those who have spent a lifetime attempting to improve the cause of universal global wide peace, Obama’s current credentials fall short of say Nelson Mandella or Mother Teresa.

Its hard to say whether or not Obama deserved the award, but that debate is incidental. The true test will now be, in the hands of a young man in power, can Obama make his actions in office worthy of his prize.