President Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize

World media is reacting—mainly with surprise—to U.S. President Barack Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that it awarded President Obama the peace prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Essentially, President Obama has been rewarded for what he has promised to do.

Britain’s Times Online labeled it an “absurd decision.” “Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent,” the article declared. “It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush administration ….

“Many people will point out that, while the president has indeed promised to ‘reset’ relations with Russia and offer a fresh start to relations with the Muslim world, there is little so far to show for his fine words.”

Canada’s National Post called the decision “ridiculous.” “As far as it appears, the award was based on the fact that the U.S. president is a good-natured fellow who people seem to like—and who isn’t George W. Bush,” the Post wrote. “What seems clear is that Mr. Obama is being given his award for mere words—for striking fashionable poses in favor of multilateralism, for making a nice speech in Cairo, for offering ‘hope.’”

The reality is that never before has the world been in such imminent danger of the total absence of peace. The hope being placed in President Obama will prove dangerously false. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them …” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Barack Obama’s overtures to the Muslim world are destined to produce the opposite of peace. Through its multilateralism approach, America is signaling its weakness to the world. Its enemies will soon fill the void. As columnist Stephen Flurry wrote last month, this Earth is

as dangerous as this world has ever been, and yet, this is the unmistakably weak and childish message the United States of America is sending to the world: We have fully abandoned our position as lone superpower and international policeman. …This new world, the way America sees it, is like kindergarten—where all people and nations, with mutual interests and mutual respect, play fair and share everything, and where international bodies—certainly not the United States—maintain order and peace.This new worldview, though, is about to be smashed by the hard reality of old alignments and divisions, as prophecy forewarns and the pages of history books have recorded.

Still, while it is true that President Obama’s peace credentials are extremely flimsy, the fact remains that previous peace laureates have not achieved any sort of lasting peace on this Earth either. Some, like Yasser Arafat, have done very much the opposite. Mankind simply does not know the way to peace. There is only one way that peace on Earth will be achieved—and that is through a higher power.