President Obama received the Nobel Peace prize today. Many say that the prize has been awarded to soon, and the Nobel committee even agrees! They are hoping that this award is more of an encouragement in the direction of peace, rather than to award something he has already done. I personally think it was a very poor decision, I don't think he has done anything that he deserves it for. It is actually worse for the president I think. It sets the standard extremely high, and it sets the president up for failure. I also think he should not be awarded because he is the president. It is the job of the president to create peace. This president has not done much more than many others to set the tone for peace. It seems nonsensical to reward the very person we expect to set a peaceful tone.
Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, does agree that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was great concern when considering Obama for the award, but was reassured when the Obama administration immediately reassessed the situation, and changed their strategy. Many world leaders commended Obama for his achievement, while others think its premature and much too early to predict how things will go. In his speech, Obama said that he was humbled to be apart of this great community of people, made up of the previous winners. He plans to travel Oslo to accept the prize.
I think that we should be careful of how much we expect of this- I don't think we will know what kind of problem we've got ourselves into. We have put all our faith into one man and one administration. We can't expect everything to change in one term. It will take time. And time, I'm afraid, is running out almost as fast as our money.
"I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results."
Alfred Nobel
Obama has announced that the war in Iraq will be over by Labor day of next year. This is still unsure however, as even supporters of this are skeptical of the success. I'm not sure if we can effectively leave like this. We don't know when the people will be able to effectively protect themselves and their borders- as mentioned by Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis. There is no way we can just leave them. We worked so hard to free them, we couldn't just get up and walk away.
The swine flu pandemic has been sweeping through the nation at an alarming pace. Doctors and Health Officials are scared that people will be too frightened of the unknown to get the vaccination. We have already met the average deaths for a normal flu season, and we it is only October! The flu is targeting children and pregnant women- people don't really know what to do. So many people are unsure of whether or not the drug is safe. Many would rather just take their chances. This really concerns health care providers because they believe by the end of the season so many deaths could have beeen prevented.
