CAUTION: “Do it yourself Nobel Peace Prize” contains very sensitive detonation mechanism
Jim Hoagland | The Washington Post
The election of the first African American president deserves global recognition. But if that is the committee’s intent, the Nobel should have been given to the American electorate.
Instead, my compatriots several generations removed intend this award to a first-year U.S. president as a down payment on peace agreements to come, to encourage even more splendid speeches and U.N. votes for multilateralism. The prize committee members are applying the definition often attributed to Winston Churchill of gratitude as an expression of thanks for favors yet to come.
But they neglect, at our risk, the doctrine of unintended consequences. They are dealing the award to a White House that micromanages perceptions and vote-maximizing images and to an American nation that is far more pragmatic than the Norwegians assume. This premature Nobel may well empower Obama, a calculating left-of-centrist, to become even more muscular in deed while continuing to talk about a peaceful, denuclearized world. See Afghanistan, Guantanamo, rendition, etc., etc.
And that detonation device we spoke of in the headline …
These politically correct Vikings may have given Obama not the boost toward greatness they intend but rather a crippling burden — if he and his staff take the award too seriously.
My guess is this political prize blows up at a very inconvenient moment.
Continue reading this story … at the link above.
No tags for this post.
