BArack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize - 6 Months Later

OK - it was exactly 6 months ago that Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize for... um  ... for well for nothing, I mean for "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."   Wow, that is a lot better than "e for effort."   Then it was explained that is was for what he was going to accomplish.  Since this award was awarded in haste - basically for nothing other than a "we really, really like him." award by Norway. (In reality the award was announced in October, so we are like 8 months after).  The panel said that "We have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. We are awarding Obama for what he has done in the past year. (which was run for office and nothing done for peace) And we are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do," Silly Norwegians, for what he has done in the past year riiiiiight!

So let's see how he has "fostered diplomacy."  When people focus on peace they often look to the middle east.  I am not sure exactly where the middle east starts and stops, but most folks agree that Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Iran are in the middle east (some may include Afghanistan, I would not).  As far as I can tell things are worse, not better as far as peace goes.  Israel and Palestine are no closer to peaceful coexistence thanks to Hamas, Fattah, and Hezbola.Iraq situation has not changed for the better and is and has been controlled by Iraqi government long before Obama got elected.  I guess when Bush said "We will leave when Iraq wants us to leave."  was pretty accurate.  Iran - well, no one can say this current administration could not have handled the Iran situation any worse.  Basically nothing has been done about Iran except that we have told them that they have been really, really bad.  Anyhow - I see a no more peaceful middle east.

The Afghanistan situation so far is deteriorating.  However we are trying a surge kind of thing (I wonder who decided to do such a thing before).  Funny, since the Gulf Oil spill, no one in the media is even asking about how things are going or have gone with it.  After all the new offensive - that was to start in the spring should be well under way.

North Korea - the situation with them is worse than ever - we allowed them to sink a South Korean ship and all we can say is something about "the world", not us, not our allies - wait we don't have allies anymore, I forgot.  If you think we have allies - give me a list of them from 2008, but check it close - you will have to scratch most of them off.

My view is that Norway blew this last Peace Prize (again).

Whatever you do - stay safe!