Why Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

 http://www.osservatoriosullalegalita.org/09/int/10/109nobel.htm

Rome. October 11th, 2009. Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th and present President of the United States has been awarded the 2009 Peace Prize. Along with the customary congratulations, a lot of criticism has been directed at the Oslo Committee’s choice. The denigrators claim that Obama has still not obtained important results towards peace among peoples. EveryOne Group, itself a candidate for the 2010 Prize, had championed Obama’s candidature, emphasizing some of the episodes in his life and career which are little known to the public. “The Oslo Committee made a courageous decision,” say Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, the leaders of the human rights organization, “because Obama has been a man of peace for many years. In 1992 he was working as a lawyer in Chicago defending civil rights, and since then he has promoted antiracism, the rights of the less fortunate social categories, the Native Americans and ethnic minorities throughout the world. Last year, Patrick Dodson, the well-known activist for the rights of the Australian Aborigines, after receiving the Sydney Peace Prize, said that Obama’s commitment to helping the “Indians of America” and his proposals presented to the White House represent an efficient and responsible model to be copied throughout the world. Again last year, the leader of several Native American tribes, (among them the Crow Indians of Montana) declared that Obama’s policies for the natives are ideal projects for the protection of native peoples and defined Barack as “a man who helps the people of the world”. Obama’s mission is to encourage cooperation between peoples and it is this commitment that convinced the committee in Oslo”. The President, after hearing he had won the prize said: “I am not sure I deserve it, but I will consider it a call to action”. Obama is opening windows of dialogue with the world’s leaders and putting a lot of energy into blocking the nuclear peril and ecological and climatic disasters, but there are two moments in his life that seem to sum up his commitment to peace and human rights. The first was his visit to Buchenwald (the day after his historical speech addressed to Islam, in which he proposed a new start based on mutual respect) where the President didn’t use the customary prepared speech, but instead laid a single white rose in silence on the stone that commemorates the victims. Before the massacre of millions of innocent people, his gesture and vigilance spoke louder than a thousand words. The second image we wish to recall, is that of the President sitting next to the black university professor and the white policeman who had arrested him due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. Thus, an incident that could have led to an increase in racial tension ended amicably in front of three mugs of beer on the White House lawn. If two people can do it… yes, everyone can do it.”

From Obama, a change in direction

In Obama’s favour, we would also like to recall the fact – something few people are aware of – that he has broken the chain of warmongering US Ambassadors to the United Nations appointed by Bush. John Bolton and Zalmay Khalilzad (along with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby and others) were signatories back in 1998 of a letter to Clinton in which they urged military intervention in Iraq - and Bolton, when he was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control declared that Bush did not need the endorsement of the United Nations to initiate a war (which reveals how unsuitable they were to be UN ambassadors).
What is more, on September 24th, 2009, the Security Council (presided over for the occasion by Obama) unanimously approved resolution 1887 presented by the United States asking the signatory states of the “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons” to stick to their commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and urging nations who are not part of the treaty to sign. The resolution also invites the countries to allow international inspectors to check exported material which could be utilized to construct a bomb. The final aim is to “put all nuclear material under lock and key within the next four years”, to prevent the construction of new nuclear bombs and eventually arrive at global disarmament.

Two episodes that are a mark of a change of direction compared to the unilateral political decisions that have only brought war, destruction and violations of human rights (often ignoring international law) to the world. Episodes that confirm the importance of international cooperation organisations and chalk up points for the moral authority of the USA in the world - which even the Americans themselves have admitted was on the decline.

We obviously do now know whether these actions justify the awarding of the Nobel Prize or not (it was up to others to judge) but we enthusiastically approve of them.

The staff of the “Osservatorio sulla legalità