[Le Temps, Switzerland]
Corriere della Sera, Italy
Is Obama's Nobel Just to Repudiate George W. Bush?
"If
not an indictment of George W. Bush, what is this Nobel for Barack Obama,
which has no relation to hard and fast accomplishments and isn’t to celebrate
his more than credit-worthy diversity?"
By Franco Venturini
Translated By Enrico Del Sero
October 10, 2009
Italy - Corriere della Sera - Original
Article (Italian)
Defeated a few days ago in Copenhagen
where he had unsuccessfully carried Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics, in
nearby Oslo, Barack Obama has exacted a surprising and singular revenge.
Surprising because never in the post-war era has the Nobel Peace Prize been
awarded to a sitting American president - to say nothing of one who has been in
office for just nine months. Singular because Obama, a bearer of intentions that
deserve all of our support, has yet to achieve any of them and could over the
next few days, expose the paradox of a Nobel Peace Prize winner sending additional
troops to fight a bloody war. Afghanistan, where we believe we have a right to
remain and impose ourselves, is just one example of the irresistible hurry that
apparently seized the Nobel jury in Oslo. Obama wants to stabilize the country with
the aim of a future withdrawal from Kabul, but no one can know today whether
such a goal, which would be worth not one but two Nobel Prizes, can really be
achieved.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
The same pending verification
accompanies some of the U.S. president's other initiatives: his outstretched
hand to Iran; the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians; his
vision of a world without nuclear weapons; an opening to the Islamic world; a
new sensitivity to defending the environment. All of these innovations are
still on the launching pad - none of which alone would justify the Nobel.
Unless the award given to
Obama yesterday [Friday] was an "anti-Nobel": anti-George Bush. German
Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that Barack Obama was awarded for his new spirit
of dialogue. In other words, he was selected for his choice of a more multilateral
diplomacy that is more pragmatic than idealistic; for being a sworn enemy of the "Clash
of Civilizations" anticipated by Samuel Huntington; and for being alien to the thesis
that military instruments can help bring about democracy where there was none. Well
then, if not an indictment of his predecessor, what is this Nobel for Barack
Obama, which has no relation to hard and fast accomplishments and isn’t to
celebrate his more than credit-worthy diversity?
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden:
The Norwegians 'Got Carried Away' with Obama
Le Temps, Switzerland:
Has Nobel Committee
'Fallen on its Head?'
Corriere della Sera, Italy:
Is Obama's Nobel Just to Repudiate George W. Bush?
Sato, Portugal:
President Obama's Nobel - Can He Fulfill World's Expectations?
Rue 89, France:
Nobel 2009: Obama a (Premature) Icon of Peace
Zaman, Turkey:
Turks Agree: Obama's Nobel Reflects Hope, Not Action
Der Spiegel, Germany:
For Barack Obama, Nobel Prize
More of a Burden than an Honor
The Times, U.K.:
'Absurd Decision'
on Obama Makes Mockery
of Nobel Peace Prize
The Times, U.K.:
'Pointless' Nobel Reveals How Obama is Lost in His own Mystique
India Today, India:
[Indian] People's Verdict:
Obama Not 'Nobel' Enough
NTV Kenya Video:
'Yes He Can and Yes
He Did' Win the Nobel Prize
Russia Today Video:
Nobel Peace Prize
for Obama a 'Big Mistake'
CBC Canada Video:
Canada's Nightly
News Covers Obama's
Nobel Prize Win
France 24 Video:
Does Barack Obama
Deserve Nobel Peace Prize?
BBC News Audio:
IAEA Chief
ElBaradei Says 'No One
More Worthy' than Obama
BBC News Video:
After Mandela and
Tutu, South Africans Applaud
Obama Nobel Victory
BBC News Video:
Israeli President
Peres Praises Nobel Prize for Obama
If that's the way things have
gone, we believe Oslo was in error. Because the decision to award Obama reveals
an ideological intent, while Obama himself sums up his new policies as being
bereft of an ideological bent. The president, at first surprised himself, perhaps
provided the best interpretation of all for his award: a simple incentive to go
on, an encouragement, with the unspoken hope that the Nobel doesn’t raise the
bar too much and contribute to his vulnerability on the domestic front. We,
too, wish to believe that this is an encouragement, and would like to associate
ourselves with it. But one cannot ignore that yesterday, a new era began: that of
a Nobel Prize based on trust.
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[Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US October 10, 3:20pm]
