myerstownherald.com

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama appears purely political. Obama has made speeches about peace, but he has yet to achieve concrete results. Under the logic used by the Nobel committee, many U.S. presidents could have received the prize, although few actually have.
The American public should receive the news of this award with at least a little skepticism. Because Obama has yet to achieve any lasting peace in any of the areas that were troubled when he took office, the move to give him the award likely is an endorsement of his rhetoric about peace, which is far more dovish than anything President Bush used.
Obama’s rhetoric, however, has contained passages blaming America and apologizing for America on the world stage. Obama has said this country is arrogant, and he has extensively detailed America’s faults. This type of language might be appealing to liberal Europeans, such as the people on the Nobel committee, but in the long run, America only will be able to effect positive change if its president discusses the country’s powerful virtues such as support of democracy and freedom.
So far, Obama’s policy of attempting to be nice to Iran and North Korea does not seem to actually have deterred these countries from abandoning their nuclear weapons programs. His conciliatory attitude toward Russia, which included taking the missile defense shield from Poland, may not yield any results either. Many of these rogue countries respect only a strong American foreign policy, and backing down will not help these situations.
Additionally, his policy toward the war in Afghanistan has been confusing when a clear strategy has been necessary.
An American president who truly did deserve the Nobel Peace Prize was President Theodore Roosevelt. He brokered an end to the Russo-Japanese War without firing a shot. In general, Roosevelt’s foreign policy consisted of projecting American strength, and the world largely was peaceful when he was in office.
We hope that Obama’s foreign policy succeeds. An American victory in Afghanistan is essential to the War on Terror. No one wants to see an Iran with nuclear weapons, or a more belligerent North Korea. Russian influence should be reigned in. But Obama’s foreign policy has not achieved these aims yet. The Nobel Peace Prize appears to have been awarded based on dovish rhetoric. Results, however, are more important.