Peace Prize

There are many things I could write a blog about today. But if you haven't guessed it already I have to got to chime in about Obama's Nobel Speech. First let me say I don't care that he got it, and I don't really care who gets it in the first place. It is a man made award that has no worth in the hereafter.

I have to concede I feel the effects of Obama's speech in Cairo. I see people my age here in the Arab world believing the statement that the "clash of civilizations" is over. Which I thought was good news.

But Obama's actions today said otherwise. His speech today was disturbing to say the least. As a political scientist, I would say his speech today was spoken like a true American cowboy. George W. Bush could have said that same speech and everyone would have been cringing. But we are mesmerized by Obama's smile and swagger and we don't second guess him. Today Obama turned away from the rhetoric of his campaign trail and embraced the "these colors don't run" attitude of his fore bearers. And doing this all while receiving a "peace" prize.

Obama, today, had the audacity to call upon the legacy of Martin Luther King, who rejected every form of violence even to the point of death. Obama did this while labeling groups as "evil" and war/violence as "necessary", "good", and "just". Obama shrugged this off saying that King was the leader of a movement, while he is the leader of a nation. And yet when America was at war with Vietnam, King was calling us "to be non-violent to little brown Vietnamese boys." If only Obama was calling us to be non-violent to little brown Afghan boys.

The definition of "peace" of this world falls so short of the way in which Christ defines "peace". Today Obama took a big turn, like Bush before him, from the teachings laid out by Christ in the New Testament. It seems with the new escalation of 30,000 troops, committed to yet another unjust war declared by America, we can once again forget our hopes for a new America, and settle for the same old song and dance.

salaam alikum