Should Barack Obama Have Won The Nobel Peace Prize?

"Yes," said the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee as they named him the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. But this upset others who call it a sham for Mr. Obama has brought peace no-where.

Who is right? You be the judge.

President Obama disregarded his campaign promises to get the U.S. out of the Iraq war within 16 months of taking office and instead he adapted President Bush's plan, as he continues the brutal U.S. military occupation there.

While in Afghanistan, he's escalated the war and continued its spread into Pakistan.

He's also continued America's War on Drugs, the fighting sometimes so fierce and the corruption from the vast sums of drug money so prevalent, it has cost many lives and endangers the governments of Mexico, Columbia and Brazil.

On the other hand, he is a charismatic, eloquent speaker in office a mere 9 months. Potentially, he could eventually help to bring peace somewhere.

But as for the Nobel Peace Prize, you and I have no voice. If the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee chose Charles Manson, that would be their business and that of Mr. Manson.

This Committee didn't ask for your or my opinion, nor did they ask the Iraqi, Afghan or Pakistani people what they think of selecting Barack Obama. I doubt they would be supportive of the choice of Mr. Obama but then they have higher priorities, such as staying alive in their war torn nations.

In the past, this Committee has selected such prominent peace activists as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa. It also selected U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was a major architect of President Nixon's wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, reigning Hell down on those poor people.

Yet, ironically it never awarded the Prize to one of history's greatest peace activists, Mohandas K. Gandhi.

And what is often forgotten is yet another contradiction of that Prize. Alfred Nobel made his massive fortune as a war profiteer. He ran what was sort of the Halliburton of his time and he's most famous for inventing one of the most powerful weapons of that era, dynamite.

The Nobel or Oscars, Grammies and other prizes are just trinkets which the winners discard at death. Mother Teresa accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 largely for the monetary portion of the prize so she could donate it to her orphanage work.

So let's not take this Nobel Peace Prize so seriously.

Most important of all, to bring peace in the world is not a one person affair. It's up to you and me to get involved and join with others as we help to uplift humanity. For it is poverty and hunger, sickness and hopelessness that plant the seeds for war.

Instead of silence and indifference, let's start by pursuing even a small portion of the vast wealth poured into weapons and wars and then reinvest that money to help the poor uplift themselves. If we created hospitals, schools and jobs it could do wonders in bringing peace to the world.

Dick