To those who say a Nobel is too much too soon in Obama’s young presidency, “we simply disagree … He got the prize for what he has done”, said the committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland. (full article…)

President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized — and the Pentagon is deploying — at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials. (full article…)

True, Obama didn’t ask for this. It was obvious, from his halting delivery and slightly shamefaced air last Friday, that he wishes the Nobel committee hadn’t put him in this spot.

But he still wasn’t brave enough to tell it no. (full article…)

“It is hard to imagine that he will be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Dec. 10 and then come empty-handed to Copenhagen a week later,” she said. (full article…)

How does Obama’s suppression of Israeli war crimes in the Goldstone Report factor into his silly prize?

Speaking in Washington, Obama said he did “not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honoured by this prize”. (full article…)

President Obama should thank the Nobel committee and ask them to hold on to the Peace Prize for a couple more years. The prize should be awarded for achievement, not aspiration, and so far Obama’s main achievement has been getting elected President, which is in a different category. (full article…)

Issam al-Khazraji, a day labourer in Baghdad, said: “He doesn’t deserve this prize. All these problems — Iraq, Afghanistan — have not been solved…The man of ‘change’ hasn’t changed anything yet.” (full article…)

Ahtisaari called the region’s conflict the “world’s most challenging peace-building project” and urged Obama to start his term by giving it “high priority” as he was awarded the prize in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday. (more…)

Others, such as Jimmy Carter, are seasoned veterans at conflict resolution and have the Nobel Peace Prize to prove it. (more…)

I don’t understand the myth that Jimmy Carter is a great peacemaker. Is he not guilty of directly supporting genocide in East Timor? His arms shipments to the Suharto regime allowed 200,000 East Timorese to be sluaghtered by the time he left office…

And what about his trite explanation that the U.S. owes nothing to Vietnam because the “destruction was mutual.”

Then there was his long-term support for the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua—indeed his support for numerous 3rd world strongmen. And it was the Carter administration that oversaw the CIA’s strategy of training Islamic extremists to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

James Petras has said that Carter’s image as “a peace mediator, impartial electoral observer and promoter of democratic values…clashes with the experiences of several democratic Third World leaders struggling against dictatorships and pro-U.S. clients.”

In another few days, I will sail on one of the Free Gaza movement boats from Cyprus to Gaza. The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations. Our voyage also exposes Israel’s attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. Israel’s claim that there is no Occupation, or that the Occupation ended with “disengagement,” is patently false. Occupation is defined in international law as having effective control over a territory. If Israel intercepts our boats, it is clear that it is the Occupying Power exercising effective control over Gaza. Nor has the siege anything to do with “security.” Like other elements of the Occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Israel has also besieged cities, towns, villages and whole regions, the siege on Gaza is fundamentally political. It is intended to isolate the democratically-elected government of Palestine and break its power to resist Israeli attempts to impose an apartheid regime over the entire country. (more…)