Today the Nobel Prize Jury defended their decision in giving President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. After reading their comments and what they feel is their defense, it's quite obvious Norway either exists on another planet, or is in some time-capsule ala Brigadoon.
So many accomplishments, so little time...The comment I felt which said it all was from committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland:
"We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done."Well if this is indeed the case, and he really wants an answer...I have contributed more than Barack Obama to the development of peace. If the awarding of this year's prizes are dependent on your actions for the previous year, then Barack Obama was not even President yet, and all he had done was win the election. That in no way is a contribution to anything.
Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.
"All these things have contributed to - I wouldn't say a safer world - but a world with less tension," Jagland said by phone from the French city of Strasbourg, where he was attending meetings in his other role as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.
He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals.
"I take note of it. My response is only the judgment of the committee, which was unanimous," he said, adding that the award to Obama followed the guidelines set forth by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who established the Nobel Prizes in his 1895 will.
"Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year," Jagland said. "Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?"
It also means the other issues they're bringing up in their defense are completely disqualified, because those are things he's supposedly done this year, which are false nonetheless, but let's not let the facts get in the way.
So it looks like Saturday Night Live was right, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush. Congratulations Mr. President, job well done.
