Revoke Obama’s Peace Prize – OpEd

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Every year the Norwegian Nobel Committee bestows its peace prize on esteemed persons and organizations who, “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” In general, recipients are deserving of the honor, with such luminaries as Dr. Martin Luther King and organizations such as Doctors Without Borders among the long list of laureates.

Occasionally however, the committee has a lot to answer for, as was the case when Henry Kissinger was the prize recipient in 1973. He was honored for his role in the negotiations which ended the Vietnam war, but by that time Kissinger’s actions as National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State had caused the deaths of over one million people in Southeast Asia.

Two years ago, true peace makers were dismayed to learn that Barack Obama was named the 2009 peace prize winner. Giddy at the site of a black man becoming president of the United States, the prize nominators lost any collective wisdom they may have had and awarded the prize for peace to the man who oversees a war machine larger than that of the rest of the nations of the world combined and he has subsequently proven that he has no qualms about utilizing it.

Obama did not disappoint the people around the world who were mystified by the choice. In his award speech he essentially said that he should not have been the person receiving the medal on that day. The unworthy winner spent most of his speech talking about the need for war. Orwell’s words, “War is peace,” were prescient.

If the Norwegian committee wasn’t listening to critics in 2009, they ought to be questioning their decision now. In 2011 alone, Obama ordered the death of Osama bin Laden without any intention of capturing and trying him. Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was never given the due process to which he was entitled, but U.S. drones killed him as surely as the Navy SEALS killed bin Laden.

The president’s killing spree didn’t end with the elder al-Awlaki. His sixteen year old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, also an American citizen, was obliterated by a drone just two weeks after his father’s death. Obama claims to have the right to kill American citizens based on secretly drawn up criteria which aside from strategic placed leaks to the media, have not been publicly divulged.

With these killings fresh in the world’s consciousness, the horrific end of Moammar Gaddafi was seen the world over. For those with the stomach to watch, videos of his killing and then his dead, mutilated body were viewed all over the world. His end did not come directly at the hands of the United States, but Barack Obama and his NATO allies were surely responsible. They took it upon themselves to decide the fate of an entire nation, and overthrew one government in favor of another. In the process Libyans were subjected to sanctions and bombing incursions which killed an unknown number of them. Both black Libyans and migrants from other African nation were the targets of lynch mob violence at the hands of the “rebels” supported by Barack Obama.

There are many other examples of the peace prize laureate’s not so peaceful ways. From lies and threats against Iran to ever escalating wars of terror in Somalia and Pakistan, the president has presided over one of the most violent eras in the recent history of American international relations.

The Norwegian committee does not have a mechanism to withdraw an award once it is given, but they should seriously consider doing so. If they are truly people of conscience, they must know that they violated the ethos upon which the prize was based when Obama’s name topped the list of nominees.

It is true that combat troops are due to leave Iraq by the end of this year, but only because of an agreement requiring the withdrawal which was signed by George W. Bush. The withdrawal also comes after eight years of terror inflicted upon the Iraqis, and neither man deserves credit for undoing what ought never to have taken place. When the Obama worshippers try to make the case for their useless paeans of praise, it must be pointed out that the Iraqis refused to give the United States military immunity to commit more crimes. The false idol wanted to keep more troops and allow them to continue doing as they pleased, namely killing Iraqis on the flimsiest of whims.

It is curious that people who have genuinely suffered for peace like Mordechai Vanunu have never been honored. Vanunu confirmed that Israel has a secret nuclear stockpile, and that government imprisoned him for eighteen years and continues to keep him under house arrest seven years after his release. Julian Assange and Wikileaks revealed that Iraqi civilians were slaughtered by American troops and that our government told numerous lies to cover up these atrocities. Assange probably faces a future extradition to the United States when he ought to be honored by the world community.

The committee needs to do some serious soul searching and then do what they have never done before. They must inform the president of the United States that he has to return a medal he was given in Oslo in 2009.

Norway, take back that prize!

Margaret Kimberley

Margaret Kimberley's is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com."

4 thoughts on “Revoke Obama’s Peace Prize – OpEd

  • October 26, 2011 at 7:28 pm
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    Within days of the announcement of 2009’s Nobel Peace Prize, Mordechai Vanunu declined the honor in a letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo:

    “I am asking the committee to remove my name from the nominations…I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Simon Peres…Peres established and developed the atomic weapon program in Dimona in Israel…Peres was the man who ordered [my] kidnapping…he continues to oppose my freedom and release…WHAT I WANT IS FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM….FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.”

    To this day Vanunu is still waiting for his right to leave the state and on or before 13 November the Israeli Supreme Court is to decide on Vanunu’s appeal to revoke his citizenship.

    Please read it at his You Tube Channel here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6CZqLjyWQs&feature=channel_video_title

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  • October 27, 2011 at 12:21 am
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    In 2005 I began a series of interviews with Vanunu and he blew my mind when he said, “Did you know that President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons? In 1963, he forced Prime Minister Ben Guirion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant, as the sign outside proclaimed, but a nuclear plant. The Prime Minister said, ‘The nuclear reactor is only for peace.’

    “When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.

    “Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.” -“BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker” by Eileen Fleming

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  • October 28, 2011 at 4:24 am
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    Thank you Margaret for writing that which many Americans & people around the world think about: taking Obama’s “peace” prize away.

    If there ever was a time and a person who deserved to have the Prize snatched from his hands, this is the time & Obama is the man. The very idea that this official killing machine (in the name of “security” of course) deserves to be immediately relieved of the honor!

    Earlier this evening I got to talk with Valerie Plame Wilson about Mordechai Vanunu at a small conference about WMDs & nuclear proliferation.
    When I mentioned his name she clasped her hands, rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed loudly, exclaiming that the madmen of the world & especially Netanyahu never want to free Vanunu but they cannot imprison his gift of Truth to the world.

    So thank you for mentioning Vanunu & reminding us of his sacrifices while others like Obama and Netanyahu seem to pay no price for their evil deeds, or haven’t yet. As I read what you wrote about Obama, I remember how vile I felt hearing him consider the assassination of Gaddafi a beneficial thing when this quote by Lao Tzu instructs us well:
    “Violence should be avoided when Possible, and military “victory” was an occasion to mourn the use of force against other living beings, not an occasion for “celebration’ ”

    thank you Margaret!

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  • October 29, 2011 at 8:49 pm
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    I’ve signed a petition before to revoke Obama’s the nobel peace price. Isn’t there something more powerful that could be done?

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