{"id":3261,"date":"2009-12-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/a-nobel-war-prize-speech-by-a-war-president\/"},"modified":"2017-03-27T14:08:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:08:06","slug":"a-nobel-war-prize-speech-by-a-war-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2009\/12\/a-nobel-war-prize-speech-by-a-war-president\/","title":{"rendered":"A Nobel War Prize Speech by a War President"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance lecture in Oslo 10 December 2009–the Human Rights Day!–added tragedy to the comedy.\u00a0 It was vintage Orwell, war is peace<\/em>, serving outdated thoughts by nations trying to legitimize their warfare, with the eloquence and charm that came through to many of that persuasion.\u00a0 A reactionary speech, more becoming to war college graduation in a militaristic country like the USA; and a total travesty of the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize, intended to go beyond that kind of mentality.<\/p>\n

But the Norwegian party to this pre-arranged plot to abuse the Nobel prize to justify the three wars in which the USA, and the West generally, have gotten embroiled, carries most of the shame, particularly the two NATO prime ministers, one president of the Nobel committee.\u00a0 That they were out to save themselves, as did you, Obama; and harvested applause from the usual suspects, was obvious.\u00a0 Mutual self-praise, totally genuine.\u00a0 And therapeutic.<\/p>\n

Let us look at some points, starting with his very uninformed remarks about the nonviolence <\/em>of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

Nonviolence was their tactic, born out of a realism realistic enough to know the human capacity for violence, and an idealism idealistic enough to also know the human capacity for love, compassion, finding solutions.\u00a0 Their strategic goal was conflict solution, presented clearly and persuasively as swaraj, <\/em>freedom from colonialism for one, and a dream<\/em> of integration of races for the other–the dream of which you, Obama, admit you are a part.\u00a0 It was politics by other means; brilliantly conceived and executed.\u00a0 The conflicts were protracted and deeply entrenched. But solutions nevertheless emerged that accommodated all parties relatively well, without much trauma.\u00a0 Their relations changed.\u00a0 And so did the parties themselves.\u00a0 As is typical of nonviolence.<\/p>\n

Would not work against Hitler and Al Qaeda, you proclaim.\u00a0 So, how about the end of the Cold War, like in Leipzig DDR fall 1989, organized by the churches in the name of Gandhi and ML King Jr?\u00a0 The Berlin wall fell a month later, followed by the Soviet Empire. Nonviolence was a key factor as in Poland and Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

Not Hitler?\u00a0 It liberated Jews from the Gestapo in Berlin February 1943.\u00a0 But to stop Hitler the underlying conflict, which above all was over the Versailles Treaty, had to be solved.\u00a0\u00a0 A review conference in 1924, modifying or abrogating that very ill conceived treaty, would have deprived Hitler of most support.<\/p>\n

And that leads straight into the fundamental flaw in the construction of your speech: the absence of any effort to understand 9\/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq, beyond armed combat of people unwilling to lay down their arms.\u00a0 And yet Spanish premier Zapatero managed when exposed to his 9\/11, Once M, 11 March 2004, handling four aspects of the complex conflict with Morocco.<\/p>\n

Where is your conflict analysis?\u00a0 Why do you think there were many Saudis in the planes used as bombs 9\/11?\u00a0 What had the USA done?\u00a0 How do you think Afghans react to five European invasions in 150 years?\u00a0 Like you: the USA is evil, war is necessary.\u00a0 Your lecture confirms that “thinking”.\u00a0 They have grievances and could have used nonviolence; but you are an example of the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0There is evil in the world, <\/em>you say, declaring some wars necessary.\u00a0 Again a substitute for thinking, like medical science declaring diseases unavoidable, necessary evils.\u00a0 Your hosts are deeply involved, including Norwegian arms and oil industry; like the USA for bases, oil and pipelines in Afghanistan and Iraq much prior to 9\/11.\u00a0 You used the word “war” 44 times (your hosts even deny there is a war), but you did not speak much peace.\u00a0 To touch human hearts and minds you must possess these qualities yourself.<\/p>\n

At one point you speak the truth, when you say you have no final solution to the problem of war.\u00a0 Nobody does, but many of your Nobel colleagues are at least searching where you fall back on the tired formula of “just wars”.\u00a0 How about just diseases? Or slavery?\u00a0 colonialism?\u00a0 Fortunately, some were not stopped by medieval ideas of inherent evil and possession by Satan–thoughts always present in the deeply status quo oriented mind–but gave social evils what they deserve: a good riddance.\u00a0 You not.<\/p>\n

You call for “continued expansion of moral imagination”, and offer none.\u00a0 Instead you offer jingoistic US war propaganda.\u00a0 No mention of the soon 250 military interventions around the world, including in Germany and Japan whose fascisms were promoted from early on by your country.\u00a0 Interventions for freedom?\u00a0 A few, but generally for maintaining a US grip, in the name of “enlightened self-interest”, for US business so biased that it needs military protection.\u00a0 No mention of US material breaches of laws of war pointed to by yourself, eloquently, in your campaign for a change we can believe in.\u00a0 <\/em>But then you betrayed your voters by leaping away from one promise after the other.\u00a0 Like today.<\/p>\n

And now you continue bleeding the people of the region, with more civilian and US losses than ever, even with drones operated by CIA, which then in turn subcontracts to civilians, beyond any military control you seem to believe in.\u00a0 When a way out could have been a Conference on Security and Cooperation in Central Asia, modeled on the Helsinki conference 1972-75.\u00a0 Instead you escalate.\u00a0 As Toby Keith, a part of this Nobel party, puts it in the song Courtesy of the White, Red and Blue:\u00a0 “And you’ll be sorry that you messed with The U.S. of A; Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass; It’s the American Way.”\u00a0 Oh yes, the US imperial way.<\/p>\n

A continuity we can believe in.\u00a0 <\/em>And much of the world hates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance lecture in Oslo 10 December 2009–the Human Rights Day!–added tragedy to the comedy.\u00a0 It was vintage Orwell, war is peace, serving outdated thoughts by nations trying to legitimize their warfare, with the eloquence and charm that came through to many of that persuasion.\u00a0 A reactionary speech, more becoming to war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}