US President Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

http://timesofearth.com/Worldnews/?NT=0&nid=12528 OSLO U.S. President Barack Obama wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen global diplomacy, in a stunning choice that comes less than nine months into Obamas presidency.

The announcement was made on Friday in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, recognising Obama's attempts to foster international peace and create a world without nuclear weapons.
A White House official said the US president felt "humbled" by the award.

The Nobel Committee said that Obama had made "extraordinary efforts in international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

Obama, 48, wins the award while still being the commander-in-chief of US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Nobel committee, said.

"His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics.

"Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play."

The prize is worth $1.4m, which will be handed over on December 10.

The only US presidents to have won the award while in office were Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, from the International Peace Research Institute, told Al Jazeera: "I was very surprised ... On the other hand what I did expect this year was a daring prize.

"I mean by daring is a prize that went to somebody who is not only rewarded for past achievements but who actually stands in the midst of a historical engagement.

"In other words, I was expecting the committee to want to use the political weight of the prize to make a difference in the world. To award it to somebody who could take that political capital and run with it."

Harpviken said that Obama is yet to achieve any of his major objectives on the global stage but added "what Obama has done is to give a breath of fresh air to international diplomacy and to multilateral collaboration."

"He has done that but he has yet to prove that he can deliver. And on many of the concrete issues where he has made tall commitments and has high ambitions it is clear that the wind is not blowing his way and that it is going to be very difficult."

Governments and world players began reacting to the announcement of the award on Friday.

The Taliban condemned the decision saying that Obama has "not taken a single step towards peace in Afghanistan".
However, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, congratulated Obama, calling the announcement "appropriate".

An aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, said the award should prompt Obama to begin to end injustice in the world.

"We hope that this gives him the incentive to walk in the path of bringing justice to the world order," Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's media aide, said.

"We are not upset and we hope that by receiving this prize he will start taking practical steps to remove injustice in the world."

Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Agency nuclear watchdog chief, said that he was "absolutely delighted" that Obama had won.

"In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself," he said in a statement.

"I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honour."


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[eksdem]

Maybe Obama got the prize for ensuring that Karzai would not be neatly re-elected.

Conditions in Afghanistan worsened because Obama refused to send troops.

Dissatisfied Afghan voters voted for CHANGE.

[andyandymax]

I agree, we should support our president.  However, according to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who: during the preceding year ...." The rules also state that nominations must usually be submitted to the Committee by February 1 of the year in question. So in other words, about ten days after Obama was elected, he was already being considered for this award, for having accomplished these goals THE YEAR BEFORE HE WAS ELECTED!

[bootylicification]

President Carter got the peace prize too. You know Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize twelve days after taking office. Upon acceptance of winning it, Obama was praised by the committee, "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy". . They also gave the peace prize to Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the best known terrorist organization on the globe. This is like giving it to David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK.

.

Allen West 2012

[JimmyFormerMarine]

@TxTechRox123 Obama is a socialist pig. Isn't that enough to remove him from offoce? Are you Obama's bitch? Why are you defending the scumbag?

[TxTechRox123]

@JimmyFormerMarine impeach him for what? bringing the US troops home? oh Im' sorry motherfucker, you want to go serve a year in Iraq or Afghanistan? go right ahead,hopefully an IED blows you to pieces.

[atraldreams]

it had nothing to do with:

the u.s taking care of saddam and civilian casualties tripled under u.s control?

[artin74]

yeh ,he is gona bring peace with selling rocket and hard sanctions on 75 million ppl .!

Nobel Peace Prize is joke ...

[JimmyFormerMarine]

Obama is a disgrace. Impeach him before he does further damage to our nation.

[ArmyTank00]

Obama is the worst president in the world. It still baffles me that people vote for somebody they hardly know anything about.

Obama is way far left, he is a downright communist. He is anti-american, and not for the benefitting america, but for GETTING benefits from america, like power and wealth

[freedomthinker7]

This is a great embarrassment for Obama. This ACORN child abusing president wins the communist Nobel, which marks the end of this presidency. Obama has got to go. The Olympic committee had it right when the world bitch slapped him dead last. Obama is officially an international embarrassment. Hitler was nominated for the Nobel in 1939 and Stalin was nominated in1945 and 1948. Obama is with the likes of those mass murders along with his brutal dictator friends Chavez, Castro, and Qaddafi.

[Isheeen]

I don't know what he has done. A very Big joke.!!!!

[ReservationAtDorsia9]

i always thought this award meant something.