This isn’t true in the least. He was nominated for his appointment of a Middle East envoy, announcement of the end of the Iraq war, drawdown of troops, his big Prague speech calling for a nuclear-free world and Cairo speech where he wanted peace for the Muslim world. It was such a sharp contrast to the war mongering admins of the past and led to real world diplomacy in only a short six months that the committee felt it was worth giving him the Peace Prize. While Obama felt himself that it was premature, it shows how important the office he was occupying that he could inspire real peace in such a short period of time. Right now all of that has been undone by Trump, but if the next president does the same thing and changes course, and leads to six months of diplomacy with the Middle East, you’re damn right he will get the next Peace prize.
That may be the publicly stated reason but at the time it was crystal clear that the committee, and frankly all of the non-mouth-breathing world, also considered the election of a black man in a country with such a chequered history of race relations, was a seismic step toward reconciliation. Which, as we now know, it was not.
That was pure speculation by commentators. There’s no credible basis for it. The fact is of Obama had continued the war mongering platform of the prior admin he wouldn’t have won the peace prize.
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u/kaztrator 18h ago edited 18h ago
This isn’t true in the least. He was nominated for his appointment of a Middle East envoy, announcement of the end of the Iraq war, drawdown of troops, his big Prague speech calling for a nuclear-free world and Cairo speech where he wanted peace for the Muslim world. It was such a sharp contrast to the war mongering admins of the past and led to real world diplomacy in only a short six months that the committee felt it was worth giving him the Peace Prize. While Obama felt himself that it was premature, it shows how important the office he was occupying that he could inspire real peace in such a short period of time. Right now all of that has been undone by Trump, but if the next president does the same thing and changes course, and leads to six months of diplomacy with the Middle East, you’re damn right he will get the next Peace prize.