Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts

20.12.09

Obama and the Peace Prize, And Other Rifts on Violence

   I wonder how our President can accept the peace prize and then cite an argument for just war?! I personally feel his decision to increase troops was morally bankrupt. A more peaceful approach would have been to refuse the prize.
President Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize. Image Credit: The White House (2009)
   Now, our prez did close Guantanamo, and he has laid down a progressive plan for peace, but I think the two wars he has inherited make it a prickly predicament.
   Is Obama a warmonger? Does he feel a little aggressive push is necessary to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is violence ever necessary?
   His decision to enact violence is not necessarily unethical. Even Gandhi and King understood violence is necessary to enact change. Violence, in some order, can bring about peace - even the non-violent violence that encouraged civil rights and brought down the monarchy in India was, in my opinion, ethical. The violence of WWII took the lives of millions of more civilians than any other war in this past century. Democracy does not deplore that war.
   If our president wants to make a change in our world through violence, he needs to enact violence in other sectors to secure peace:
   Reasons for "just war" in other regions besides the Middle East: