...that Obama won a week or so ago, it reminded me of a story a friend of mine, Jamie, told me recently. He's from the U. K., but is such an admirer of the U. S. that he became an American citizen in the 1990s. He's living abroad again, this time in the Far East. Jamie said that in Europe and Asia, the U. S. was always thought of like an older brother, someone who would protect you from the neighborhood bully. During the Bush-Cheney years, however, the U. S. became the neighborhood bully. But now that Obama is president, people overseas have come to look up to America again. Obama has changed the whole tone of American foreign policy and the U. S. is seen once again as a force for good in the world.
I think that's what the Nobel Committee was trying to say with their award.
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I've been thinking that sometimes the lessoning of tension is harder to point to than the enacting of aggression. When Bush preemptively invades another country without sufficient evidence it is easy to see that he is causing damage to world peace. However, when Obama decides to discontinue a missile defense shield program it is harder to look at that as a concrete accomplishment even though it leads to the easing of tensions between countries which facilitates peaceful relations among nations.
I think Obama's speech in Cairo was not only his best ever, but probably the best speech I've ever heard in my life. And way overdue.
That alone may have been enough to earn him the Nobel.
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