| excerpt from President Obama's Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (Alt.) |
[Dec. 12th, 2009|07:37 pm] |
| [ | feel |
| |  accomplished | ] |
"I stand before you today admittedly unworthy of this prize. Along with the honor it bestows comes an awesome responsibility to live up to it's implications, and the legacy of progress toward peace each of it's nominees and recipients have made.
"When I assumed the Presidency, we were deeply involved in conflicts both in Iraq and Afghanistan. These conflicts continue, but thankfully due in great part to tireless efforts of diplomacy and the tremendous sacrifices of our brave servicemen and -women, the situation in Iraq has stabilized, the Iraqi people enjoy greater peace and freedom and out mission there draws down.
"Our attention now turns to Afghanistan. Into this land of proud peoples and cultural disparities came a divisive and corrupt interpretation of the holy Quran by religious extremists who utilized this to justify a virulent hatred of anyone who might oppose their extremism. Within this environment, these terrorists used Afghanistan as a base to launch attacks against innocent people in America, Europe and worldwide.
"Our mission in Afghanistan has never been against the people of Afghanistan but rather to pursue these religious terrorists, kill them or capture them and bring them to justice, free the people of Afghanistan from their overbearing influence and ensure that a freely-elected government can take root and flourish and further deny the factions who are the enemies of freedom any future opportunities to impose their influence by terror and violence.
"After a careful, deliberate and thorough study of the Afghan situation, I find that most if not all of these objectives have been met or exceeded. The Afghani people have spoken and elected a government, which like all such governments has shown greater and lesser degrees of success. However I am confident in the people of Afghanistan to continue to refine and transform their government and become ever more self-determined, much as we have in America.
"The terrorist elements that once controlled broad regions of Afghanistan through force and coercion have been driven out and dispersed to darker corners of the world, where they will continue to be pursued and denied safe-haven. The Afghan military and police forces have received years of training and are fully-equipped to shoulder the responsibility of security for their nation.
"Therefore, I would like to humbly take the opportunity to attempt to honor the spirit of this peace award by announcing that I am ordering a substantial withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan beginning immediately and to be completed before the end of 2010. By no means does this suggest we are leaving Afghanistan to fend for itself. At the request of President Kharzi a force of international advisors shall remain in Afghanistan for as long as necessary to ensure the safety of the people and the opportunity for democracy to continue to flourish.
"Waging war carries a tremendous responsibility to realize when it has accomplished it's righteousness goal of establishing peace and enabling freedom, and the time of that reality has come. Again I salute the efforts and sacrifices of all who have given so much, some have given all, to ensure that justice for crimes against liberty is always administered and that freedom is established as a constant bulwark against tyranny. It is to them that I dedicate this prize; it belongs to them, because they earned it." |
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| The height of hubris? hypocrisy? bad manners? |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|09:38 am] |
| [ | feel |
| |  disappointed | ] |
(Or just another hack politician doing what they do best?)
The US president uses his peace-prize acceptance speech to justify his massive and irresponsible escalation of war, while snubbing everyone in Norway from the King to the committee that awarded him.
He did say one thing that was undeniably true when he admitted he did not deserve to be awarded. |
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| The ultimate irony? |
[Dec. 4th, 2009|05:57 pm] |
| [ | feel |
| | cold | ] |
Anti-war protests are rapidly gaining momentum worldwide, with demonstrations planned in 50+ US cities and dozens of other cities outside America to protest the continued occupation of Iraq and escalation of the war in Afghanistan, ordered by the winner of the 2010 Nobel prize for peace. |
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