BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Democratic Party President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The reason President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize is because he wants to turn our country "socialist" like many other countries. This is his reward. He has not done anything to deserve it. George Bush kept this country safe for 8 years because of top intelligence, waterboarding interrogation and the Patriot Act which states: "To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled." I felt that if our intelligence did not stop an attack in time, George W. Bush would not have hesitated to respond. President Obama, in my opinion, does not have the courage to defend our country in a time of war.

I think you need to read the citation for his awarding of the Nobel Prize. I think you are slightly misinformed.

There was an interview with author Gordon Goldstein about his book, Lessons on Disaster. I turned on the TV towards the end of the interview so I missed most of it. Altho' about Vietnam, there were comparisons being made to the War in Afghanistan.

The idea of thinking GWB deserves a peace prize for advocating and enabling illegal intelligence-gathering, torture, and blind leaps into wars is astounding to me.

I just heard someone (sorry, don't know who) say on Meet The Press that one of the big questions for our country is whether to act alone and militarily or with other countries and diplomatically.

Obviously, you are one of the people who would favor the former style. The prize was awarded to Obama for starting us on a shift to the latter style, which seems to be the way the world in general is going. A world that is beginning to see war as futile and diplomacy as something to strive for? Sounds good to me.

As for terrorists, they are thugs and should be treated as such, in a criminal court, in my opinion.

As for courage, I think it takes more courage to try to work things out with people intellectually than to just strap on your holster and shoot at them. (I don't mean that soldiers are not courageous; of course, they are. I mean that for heads of state, taking the diplomatic path requires more courage than sending others into war.)

Thanks for your provocative comments.

Yes, Angie. Big comparisons. Adding more soldiers and then more soldiers, following advice from generals who say "Just a little more time and a few more soldiers and we can win this thing" again and again and again, until you have a quagmire: a situation from which extrication is very difficult.

It's what destroyed LBJ and I hope Obama does not follow the same path.

Susan, no one wants war, but sometimes you have to defend yourself. Islamic terrorism is a fact and not a fairy tale. These people are out to destroy Israel first and the United States second. When the Iraq war started, there were many other countries that went into it with us. We did not act alone militarily. We are dealing with terrorists and however we get the info is fine with me. These people do not follow any rules. Waterboarding helped us to save the lives of many people and many do not consider it to be torture. As for 'leaping blindly into war' is ridiculous. We were attacked or did you forget 911. The way Obama is heading is going to get a lot of Americans killed unless he takes a strong stance against terrorism, and gives our soldiers what they need to finally get the job done. And even once our courageous soldiers are home, terrorism is something we are going to be fighting for a long, long time. These people hate us and they want to wipe us off the map no matter what we do or don't do.

We disagree on so many points, it would take a very long email to list them. I'll just note two: 1) September 11th and the Iraq War are not related at all. 2)What does "getting the job done" mean? Should we just nuke the Middle East? Would that make you feel safe?

Thanks for your opinion about how Obama should get to work killing "these people" who want to wipe us off the map. If anyone else cares to comment on that, please do. There are some discussions I've had so many times, I just can't do it anymore, and this is one of them.

You may find more support on the Republican Party forum.

Susan, to be fair, I did not see where Gem Girl said Obama should get to work killing anybody.

I've got to admit that I was pretty chocked to hear that Obama had won the Peace Prize as well. I felt that in this instance they awarded it to him for the fact that he bowed down and said "I'm sorry, the US is wrong - everyone else is right" (major paraphrasing there).

Around the globe countries do not like the US, they think we have too much power, freedom, money (haha), etc. So for our President to apoligize for us makes a lot of other powers very happy. I think this is the true reason he won it, sadly.

As to the Iraq War and sept 11th - they are related - NOW, it is just that 9/11 was not the cause of the war as so many people think. We were in the gulf - the terrorists saw thhis as a chance to retaliate - we escalated - and so on. It just keeps going, getting bigger and more people are dying.

The wars in the Middle East have been going on since Biblical times - I don't see them stopping anytime soon. We need to get out, but we need to do so in a way that keeps our people safe. I know our men and women don't want it to be a wasted effort, but I'm not sure there is anything we can ever do over there to change anything. if it ever really comes down to us needing to protect oursleves, then we need our forces at home.

Being safe is an illusion created by those that rule by fear and falsehoods. Bush went after the wrong man in the wrong country - Bin Laden was never in Iraq - nor was the Taliban until we opened the country to instability with our attacks - which were initiated with lies, deception and no real provocation - 911 did not come from Iraq.

Our country is in decline due our reluctance (in the past) to give up the staunch nationlistic viewpoint encouraged by the last administration and to open ourselves up to a more global way of thinking and doing business. Terrorists or not we cannot continue to enact states of war with the rest of the world - this only serves to keep us isolated and behind the rest of the planet.

Diplomacy has always been a more difficult and courageous approach to making nice with one's neighbors - much easier to punch a bully than to reason with one. I am very glad that our current President is willing to go that route before sending more people into harm's way. Mr. Obama has been handed a mess and it will take a great deal of time to clean it up. Thank goodness he is willing to deal with things with intelligence, decorum and an attitude more fitting the 21st century rather than inquisitions of old.

Michelle,
You wrote "Susan, to be fair, I did not see where Gem Girl said Obama should get to work killing anybody." and you are right. Gem Girl, I apologize. You pushed my buttons and I let it get to me.

You also wrote: "they [other countries] think we have too much power, freedom, money (haha)." I don't think that is why they didn't like us. I think they didn't like us because we acted superior, haughty, and as if we didn't need the rest of the world. (e.g., not signing the Kyoto Treaty).

As for your other comments, Michelle, I, as usual, agree with Susan, horses.

Thanks for setting me straight about my wrongful statement,
Susan