Obama
getting the peace prize infuriates me. It is not that place a high value on
the Nobel Peace Prize, so much that as that if continuing the occupations of
Afghanistan and Iraq is promoting “peace,” what exactly do I deserve for
opposing doing so? And when am I going to receive it? Obama won’t even have the
decency to sell the medal and spend the proceeds on helping those he has helped
maim. I probably wouldn’t either, but then again I’m not responsible for their
injuries, except to the extent that I am responsible for failing to stop what
has gone on.
But enough about me. There must be some good jokes from all
of this…
-Is Obama going to thank all the dead Afghans and Iraqis
when he accepts the award? “If not for them and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” he
might say, “it is unthinkable that a black man would have achieved so much. By
the way, the United States has sadly not lived up to its ideals in the past and
has done bad things, but those days are over. I guarantee you that every rocket
we fire and every bomb we drop from now on is done in the name of peace.”
-Obama will soon be getting awards from organized labor and
gay rights organizations. “By ignoring us and our issues, President Obama has
done nothing proactively to hurt our cause,” one of the press releases will
say.
-Erik Prince deserves a special award for innovative
conflict resolution.
But perhaps the most important point of all of this is that
it will not change the political culture of the U.S. in any significant way. Of
all the people who at least ostensibly want the U.S. to leave Afghanistan and
Iraq, very few, if any at all, are going to see this prize as a reason to
reassess the situation and realize that maybe they aren’t on the same page as
Obama.
Those on the
right will criticize the prize going to Obama as a stupid move borne of
political correctness. As has often been the case since January, they will
be correct even as they miss the point.
Meanwhile, those on what passes for the left will by and
large defend the awarding with twisted logic. Over at dailykos.com, the current
lead story is titled “Conservatives
stand with Taliban against the President” (Jed Lewison). (This should in no way remind you of earlier attempts
by those like Ann Coulter to link Democrats and unsavory elements like al Qaeda
(RealClearPolitics,
January 5, 2006).)
These two “dueling” sides end up clouding the major issues
so that the debate is about matters of little consequence. It is the same
situation as existed when Bush was in office. I guess Obama hasn’t been able to
change it.
In other news, it looks
like the
Patriot Act will soon be renewed. Shame on those who say our elected leaders in
Washington never get anything done.