The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
Interestingly, our takes are broadly similar.
Is there another take on this? En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Is there another take on this?
Let's just hope it isn't a case of group think here!
I'm sure the wingnuts, conspiracy theorists, and true believers will all have different takes... notes from no w here
No Bush policy has changed. Iraq is still occupied. The Guantanamo torture prison is still functioning. Rendition and assassinations are still occurring. Spying on Americans without warrants is still the order of the day. Civil liberties are continuing to be violated in the name of Oceania's "war on terror." Apparently, the Nobel committee is suffering from the delusion that, being a minority, Obama is going to put a stop to Western hegemony over darker-skinned peoples. The non-cynical can say that the Nobel committee is seizing on Obama's rhetoric to lock him into the pursuit of peace instead of war. We can all hope that it works. But the more likely result is that the award has made "War is Peace" the reality.
Apparently, the Nobel committee is suffering from the delusion that, being a minority, Obama is going to put a stop to Western hegemony over darker-skinned peoples.
The non-cynical can say that the Nobel committee is seizing on Obama's rhetoric to lock him into the pursuit of peace instead of war. We can all hope that it works. But the more likely result is that the award has made "War is Peace" the reality.
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." 2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it. Whether this very apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist, or whether he is still to be delayed, we cannot know; but at any rate this apostasy, and all its tokens, and instruments, are of the Evil One and saviour of death. Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us! Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison! Do you think he is so unskillful in his craft, as to ask you openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the Truth?
"Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it.
Whether this very apostasy is to give birth to Antichrist, or whether he is still to be delayed, we cannot know; but at any rate this apostasy, and all its tokens, and instruments, are of the Evil One and saviour of death.
Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us! Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison!
Do you think he is so unskillful in his craft, as to ask you openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the Truth?
John Bolton, a U.N. ambassador in the Bush administration, told FOX News that the award will give leverage to Obama advisers opposed to sending more troops to Afghanistan at the request of commanders. "I think those who don't want a massive increase in troops will now be saying, 'But Mr. President, you just won the Nobel Peace Prize, how can you agree to 40,000 more troops on the ground,'" he said. For others, the award reinforces conservative criticism that Obama's hesitation to wield the threat of greater military force in Afghanistan demonstrates weakness, said John Wobensmith, a senior fellow for international diplomacy at the American Foreign Policy Council and a national security official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations.
"I think those who don't want a massive increase in troops will now be saying, 'But Mr. President, you just won the Nobel Peace Prize, how can you agree to 40,000 more troops on the ground,'" he said.
For others, the award reinforces conservative criticism that Obama's hesitation to wield the threat of greater military force in Afghanistan demonstrates weakness, said John Wobensmith, a senior fellow for international diplomacy at the American Foreign Policy Council and a national security official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations.
Or wingnuts crack whip. Obama cowers on stool. Tough on Terr'ism 'til '12. mmmhmmm. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I heard this on the way in this morning and thought I must be still asleep. This might be even sillier, though less perverse, than awarding it to Kissinger. "I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, You know I'm a peaceful man...'" Robbie Robertson
As an insider to the deliberations recounted, on condition of anonymity: "The example of Barrack Hussein Obama revealed by the information provided by Fox News gives true hope to us all. To think that one man can move from being a supporter of domestic terrorism, and totalitarian regimes of both the left and right, to being the inspiring leader for the US toward slightly less war than before ... in contrast to the previous incumbent, who moved from Compassionate Conservative who rarely turned up for work to an unbridled warmonger in under a year, the journey revealed to us by Fox News' inside accounts offer a message of hope in war torn countries throughout the world." I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
For two successive election cycles, the USians have elected criminals and morons, have voted distinctly against their class (not that Kerry and Gore were struggling with mortgages, but did anyone total the investments and BigPharma/War/Insurance connections of Bush/Cheney/Cabinet?), and made complete fools of themselves around the world with plodding plotting plodding militarists.
Kerry and Gore, did not fight like Obama did, did not work with luck the way that Obama did, did not get trapped by 'color of the suit' and the 'swift boat' crowd, and despite the errors of McCain/Palin, could have lost in the America that we know. But didn't.
The confusion in europe, about how could these people who they had long somewhat respected, how could they be so fooled by a deplorably rich, deplorably anti-social asshole, to get them to think that he was one of them, and get the populace to vehemently support obvious evil...it will never be understood. And imagine, (in this hypothetical thinking of the Nobel committee) what perplexity would have been involved in an EU drained by the unanswerable question of "How could they have elected these bobbing head morons, even worse that what was there before." I submit, all the excess mental power of the entire EU has been saved enough energy to have deserved many Nobel points.
Perhaps the award is for just getting through the billions of dollars election rat-race with a terrorist name and color, and for not letting the Americans (in the north of Mexico America and south of Canada America) elect another complete and untenable ass.
And perhaps...and even more likely, the Nobel's are able to see into alternative universes. Perhaps they see the Palin White House (after a mysterious terrorist-caused death of McCain.) Perhaps they see her 'bomb bomb bomb'ing Iran in memory of the fallen VietBrainwashed fool whom the conservatives talked down. Perhaps they see the Health Care Bill that she pushes through, giving a GuaranteedSedativePlan to all Americans, first to those who object. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
In those kinds situations, its not always perfection that the Nobel committee demands. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Obama did help bring down an illegitimate regime
I'm not letting that slide. This statement is a romance. You attribute a political agency to Mr Obama that simply did and does not exist and ascribe illegitimacy to GWH's elections and the period of his administration that is not supported by the either facts of federal governance, legal remedies, or popular apprehension of federal foreign and domestic policies, denoted by regular opinion surveys.
The former representation of "regime" and legitimacy --statutes-- continues re-affirmed, although certain persons associated with the the incumbent's party apparatus have vacated their offices in the White House and executive agencies, where these individuals interpreted and implemented US Code in a manner that disturbed status quo but did not invoke formal and unequivocal repudiation by colleagues in either the Congress or judiciary.
(FISA lately: DoJ Appeals Telecoms' "intra-agency" Privileges>; GITMO lately: 93-7 for $63B, amdts, H.R. 2346)
Mr Bush, unlike Mr Bloomberg ironically, did not attempt to flout term limits. So scheduled transfer of presidential authorities --however ill-conceived-- was never in doubt except in propaganda published by Democratic Party flâneurs, opposed to any Republican Party candidate. Mr Obama helped no one but himself by declaring his Democratic Party candidacy for POTUS, then faithfully executing somewhat spectacular publicity and fundraising stategems devised by Axelrod et al.
Mistaking the entertainment value his performances provided the millions for a class of political revolution, or "regime" change, is a common error. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
All we have to do is look at Burlesqueoni. But then again, the US is not supposed to be like Italy. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Frank Schnittger - May 31
by Oui - May 30 20 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 23 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 27 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 5 22 comments
by Oui - May 13 66 comments
by Carrie - Apr 30 7 comments
by Oui - Jun 17 comments
by Oui - May 3128 comments
by Oui - May 3020 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 273 comments
by Oui - May 2726 comments
by Oui - May 24
by Frank Schnittger - May 233 comments
by Oui - May 1366 comments
by Oui - May 910 comments
by Frank Schnittger - May 522 comments
by Oui - May 450 comments
by Oui - May 312 comments
by Oui - Apr 30273 comments
by Carrie - Apr 307 comments
by Oui - Apr 2647 comments
by Oui - Apr 889 comments
by Oui - Mar 19144 comments