Nobel prize silliness
First, I have to say I don’t think Obama has done enough, with solid results, to warrant being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and there were probably more qualified candidates.
That said, both the Republicans and Democrats have entertained me with their reactions to this news.
RedState’s Erick Erickson stated, “I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota.”
Rush Limbaugh said in an e-mail to Politico: “They [the Nobel Committee] love a weakened, neutered U.S, and this is their way of promoting that concept.”
He went on to say: “I think that everybody is laughing. Our president is a worldwide joke. Folks, do you realize something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn’t deserve the award. Now that’s hilarious, that I’m on the same side of something with the Taliban, and that we all are on the same side as the Taliban.”
As expected, the Democrats retorted with a statement by DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse: “the Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.”
This is why I’m an independent.
Cato foreign policy analyst makes a good point about Afghanistan
Malou Innocent, foreign policy analyst for the Cato Institute, says it straight about the Afghanistan war:
After nearly a decade at war in Afghanistan, the United States still has not defined the terms of the conflict. Seven months after President Barack Obama’s administration released its wide-ranging strategic review of the war, basic questions remain. Who is the enemy? What are the objectives? Is counterinsurgency meant to achieve the goal of counterterrorism (beating al Qaeda), state-building (bringing stability and democracy to Afghanistan), or both? What would “victory” in Afghanistan even look like? And how will the war stay won, after the United States leaves?
Without knowing the answers to such questions, the United States has no way of determining whether it is succeeding. And as long as it continues to conflate military and state-building objectives, the United States will always appear to be losing. But by focusing on stamping out al Qaeda with a light military footprint and accepting an Islamist government in Afghanistan, the United States has an opportunity for unqualified success.
The Rocky Net 