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While I'm fond of any form of flipping the NSA-backing US administration the bird, the Nobel Peace prize has not enough reputation to matter in this context. A
by praptak 13y ago
While I'm fond of any form of flipping the NSA-backing US administration the bird, the Nobel Peace prize has not enough reputation to matter in this context.
Al Gore got it for raising awareness of climate change. Obama got that for not being Bush. Even if Snowden gets it, it doesn't really matter.
- thomasfl 13y ago> Obama got that for not being Bush That's probably what he's is going to be remembered for. Poor guy.
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- brazzy 13y agoThere are a whole lot of worse things one might be remembered for. Being Bush, for one.
- ItendToDisagree 13y agoOr being the guy who 'legitimized' the drone war and killing of American citizens without a trial. Institutionalizing the president's power to decide who dies under the "disposition matrix" (kill list). Note: Not saying Anwar al-Awlaki was a good guy, or blameless, or anything of the sort. But it is still killing an American citizen from afar without so much as a thought of a trial.
- CWuestefeld 13y agoI'm with you, right up to the point of "an American citizen". As I see it, the right to a speedy jury trial, etc., don't come from being a citizen. These things came from the natural rights philosophy that Madison and others viewed the world through when creating our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Hence, the right to a trial comes simply from the fact of being a person. No citizenship or residency required. (I grant that reconciling this with acts of war makes it much more murky)
- ItendToDisagree 13y agoAgreed. It just makes it even more egregious, being that a citizen doesn't even get that right, which is written into the Constitution.
- netcan 13y agoYasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded it. Henry Kissinger meanwhile embarked on a major bombing campaign and Le Duc Tho declined the honour. They've made premature or outright bad calls before.
- aroman 13y ago>Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not. I'm sorry, what? You aren't sure if Rabin and Arafat "intended to create peace"? What exactly do you think they were intending?
- Joeboy 13y agoPeople on both sides of the Israel vs Palestine discourse tend to accuse the other side of acting in bad faith. And the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region.
- aroman 13y ago>the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region. What makes you say this? You don't think the Israelis and the Palestinians actually want peace (albeit on their own terms)?
- Joeboy 13y agoOf course they do, but clearly the Oslo Accords (for which Arafat and Rabin won their Nobel) were a product of US intervention. Concessions to the enemy are rarely a vote winner.
- efuquen 13y agoI think plenty Israelis want the Palestinians gone from Palestine and I think plenty Palestinians want Isreal erased from the map. When that is the goal of both parties, no I don't see them wanting peace. Of course, we're making a huge generalization here, plenty of people on both sides don't have this as their goal and certainly want peace, which can only be achieved through coexistence. But when coexistence is not your goal, when the ideal terms for both parties is the dissolution of the other, then no; there can really be no peace. Edit: btw I'm not really talking about the specifics of Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin listed by the OP, just your statement, which implied something more general then just those two.
- ekianjo 13y agoObama got it before he did anything at all. By default. And in retrospect hes not that different from Bush.
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- sergiotapia 13y agoIn all honesty, Obama got it for being the first black president - it was a HUGE deal, remember that.
- jfc 13y agoWhat do you mean, "in all honesty"? Unless you were privvy to the evaluative processes for the award, what you're saying is pure speculation.
- blisterpeanuts 13y agoThey should have waited 3-4 years to see if he would actually accomplish something beyond getting elected. I'm not saying he didn't accomplish anything, but traditionally a great honor is bestowed for achievements past, not potential achievements.
- krzyk 13y agoI assume that there are a lot of black presidents e.g. in Africa, I don't think a lot of them got that award.
- sergiotapia 13y agoDon't be unnecessarily obtuse - of course I meant the first black US president.
- tunap 13y agoThat is a good point. A step in the right direction for humankind. The problem is, despite appearances, the new boss is the same as the old boss.
- return0 13y agoNo, they gave it to him "for his 'extraordinary efforts' to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". At least if they had given it to him for being black, they wouldn't be lying through their teeth
- dinkumthinkum 13y ago
- Agathos 13y agoOn that note, even Bush got nominated at least once... for not not being Bush.