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The Audacity of the Peace Prize
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The United States is -- like it or not -- thrust into the position of world leadership by its political, economic, scientific, technological, democratic and military might.
The leadership comes with the duty to lead.
9/11 gave the U.S. an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world against terrorism, but the U.S. squandered that opportunity with the foolhardy misadventure into Iraq and from then on, has led the world down the path of more conflict, less communication, greater arrogance, less tolerance and less peace.
President Obama halted the slide and reversed the process with open communication, less conflict, more understanding, some humility and a LOT OF HOPE.
Has Obama achieved World Peace? Signed any major peace accord? No.
Has his presence and actions (words?) greatly raised the hope and expectation of peace worldwide? Yes.
In fact, although he is yet to achieve quantifiable results, he has electrified the world outside the U.S. (I travel internationally; speak to people from various countries; and am writing this from India right now.)
In a world that has seen such escalation of strife, division, conflict and war in the past 8 years, Obama has brought a significant change to the world spirit and definitely reversed the trend towards Peace.
The Nobel Foundation has shown courage and vision in using the Peace Prize in recognizing this change, and -- as a result -- has actually used the prize as an instrument of peace augmentation.
Kudos to the Nobel committee for their decision.
