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Title: Nobel panel saw Obama peace prize as ‘mistake,’ new book claims
Source:
Washington Times
URL Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news ... -peace-prize-mistake-new-book/
Published: Sep 16, 2015
Author: Mehgen Bartlett
Post Date: 2015-09-16 21:22:15 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 4332
Comments: 19
US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama, right recieves his medal and diploma from the the Chairman of the Nobel committee Thorbjorn Jagland, left at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at City Hall in Oslo The former director of Norway’s Nobel Institute revealed this week that he regrets the committee’s decision to give the 2009 Nobel Peace award to President Obama. Geil Lundestad, director at the institute for 25 years, said in his just-published memoir that he and the committee had unanimously decided to grant the award to Mr. Obama just after his election in 2009 more in hopes of aiding the American president to achieve his goals on nuclear disarmament, rather than in recognition of what Mr. Obama had already accomplished. Looking back over Mr. Obama’s presidency, Mr. Lundestad said, granting him the award did not fulfill the committee’s expectations. “[We] thought it would strengthen Obama and it didn’t have this effect,” he told the Associated Press in an interview. The award so early in his term appeared to take the Obama White House by surprise, and Mr. Lundestad said U.S. officials privately asked if a Nobel Prize-winner had ever skipped the awards ceremony. Normally the Nobel committee’s decision regarding recipients remains private, and Mr. Lundestad’s frank and revealing remarks regarding internal decisions have caused a stir in Norway, detailing the politicking and compromises that have gone into determining the annual laureate. “Even many of Obama’s supporters thought that the prize was a mistake,” Mr. Lundestad said. In the book, he expressed regret that the decision had been based in a hope for the future rather than recognition of past accomplishments, and that their expectations for Mr. Obama were not fulfilled. 
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#1. To: cranky (#0)
An "enormous blunder" is more like it. The prestige of the Nobel prize has certainly been damaged. Admitting the error would be a first step in making things right.
The list of Nobel Peace Prize winners have about as much to do with peace as a Peacekeeper missile. Some, such as Mother Teresa (1979) or Malala (2014) may qualify for a humanitarian award, but a Peace prize? And then there are the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013); the European Union (2012); Obama (2009); Al Gore (2007); IAEA (2005); Jimmy Carter (2002); the UN (2001); Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin (1994); United Nations Peacekeeping Forces (1988); Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1981); Amnesty International (1977); Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (1973). The people making these awards are brain damaged.
#17. To: nolu chan (#16)
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten all about their giving a peace prize to the EU. I stand corrected. I suppose if the entire European population was invited to the awards ceremony and banquet, some good came out of it.
With overly developed egos. But just look at how much Clinton wants one. He had his flacks lobby those clowns for years just to get one.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestNobel panel saw Obama peace prize as ‘mistake,’
#16. To: Pinguinite, cranky (#1)
The prestige of the Nobel prize has certainly been damaged. Admitting the error would be a first step in making things right.
Replies to Comment # 16.
#19. To: nolu chan (#16)
The people making these awards are brain damaged.
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