Nobel Peace Prize Could Cripple Young President: Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alscace of France

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Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsacé, France

Nobel Peace Prize Could Cripple Young President

"Getting America to face the crisis that resulted from eight years of 'Bushism' was already a challenge. Doing it with a white flag in one hand and the Star-Spangled Banner in the other is a tightrope act that puts him doubly at risk."

By Olivier Picard

Translated By Mary Kenney

September 10, 2009

France - Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace - Home Page (French)

Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjoen Jagland, shocks the world and apparently the U.S. president himself, by announcing that Barack Obama is the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

BBC NEWS VIDEO: Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Obama for 'his extraordinary efforts to strengthen global diplomacy and co-operation between peoples,' Oct. 9, 00:01:30

Upon hearing the news, the response was first surprise. That was succeeded by a spontaneous burst of sympathy. Then came a rather disagreeable astonishment. And finally, the vague feeling that an error had been made. The choice to give Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize has given us the strange sensation of living history in fast forward - as if we were overtaking in double-quick time that which had yet to occur.

Too soon! Due to a recognition that this is at least premature, many admirers of the young and talented president of the United States feel a reticence. It is a paradoxical time for Obama's dream for America. If the breathtaking nature of his speeches shows the ambition of his grand design, it also reveals no more than a manifesto of good intentions. The cruelty of reality can tear to pieces the most generous impulse, changing the trajectory of the first months of his presidency.

How to reward a blank or nearly blank page? Have we ever seen a Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to an author based only on reading an astounding introduction and, as for the rest, on the strength of a promising hypothesis? In baptizing a prologue, the venerable institution runs the risk of being betrayed by events. It has already honored distinguished heads of state or diplomats currently in office, to be sure. But they had traveled a long road to convince their own side to silence the guns.

In 1973, Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho had tried, without too many illusions, to foreshadow an end of the Vietnam War and set in motion the retreat of American forces. In 1978, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat had the courage to sign a seemingly impossible peace agreement between two implacable enemies, and President Carter played a decisive role in finalizing Camp David [the Camp David Accords], a process set in motion by the Egyptian president’s journey to Jerusalem. In 1994, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat each had taken enormous risks to reconcile their peoples. All of these individuals were caught up by destiny - but all had taken steps on the path of peace.

Barack Obama cannot yet boast of results. He is, however, the leader of a country at war in two countries. And every time he has to use force, this distinction [the Prize] will be discredited by his actions. The truth is that this doesn't serve him, but instead places an added burden on his shoulders. Getting America to face the crisis that resulted from eight years of “Bushism” was already a challenge. Doing it with a white flag in one hand and the Star-Spangled Banner in the other is a tightrope act that puts him doubly at risk.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden: The Norwegians 'Got Carried Away' with Obama

Le Monde, France: One Must Not Misinterpret Obama's Nobel!

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

Kayan, Iran: 'Traitorous African Murderer' Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize!

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