While I munched a lunchtime sandwich I happened to switch on the news for the few minutes during which a live feed of the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech showed Barack Obama justifying war.
I was shocked. In the same breath that Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr were praised it was suggested that sometimes war is OK because humanity is not yet able to do without it. It is a terrible shame that any justification for war was presented at an award for peace. It is surprising that the justification “that’s just how it is” came from a world leader that achieved his position on a platform of being able to change the way we do things. The terrifying justification was supported by the claim that everyone supported the war in Iraq, which is simply a lie. Perhaps Obama was playing a difficult balancing act and wanted to make sure that potential belligerents did not think he would tolerate an invasion of any kind. But then maybe he should have declined the award.
BBC: Obama defends war at Nobel award
BBC: US media react to award (October 9)
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