Peace Prize for President with Blood on His Hands (tags)
When I woke up this morning I received an email from a friend telling me that U.S. President Barack Obama was chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. I had to think a moment to make sure it was not April 1st. I have been around awhile so I am not easily shocked, but this did shock me at first. I have been writing about Obama for a few years and have followed his career in politics and could not imagine why he had been chosen. But as I was more fully awake it made perfect sense to me, given some of the past winners of the Prize.
Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom. This was the language that, when coupled with expanding military and commercial ambitions, had helped launch two very different wars.