BARACK Obama is not the first US President to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What is quite amazing is not the issue of his worthiness, but that the award’s recipient is an American president pressing the cause of world peace and nuclear disarmament.
The quest for peace and nuclear disarmament has gone hand-in-hand. How I recall those marches and demonstrations and Western governments being hellbent on a military build-up and a nuclear armoury.
I think your Comment column (Echo, Oct 10) was right in describing the award as being premature. It is usual for an award to be made for achievement rather than vision or aspiration and it is ironic that President Obama is overseeing the war in Afghanistan, but it was a war he has inherited.
In the nine months since his inauguration President Obama has achieved a great deal in reshaping foreign policy and in particular the US relationship with the Middle East.
If he fulfils his objective on world peace and disarmament at least strides will be made in bringing minds together rather than bludgeoning those who have different opinions into submission, which was the style adopted by his predecessor, George Bush.
Bernie Walsh, Coxhoe, Durham.
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