Comments on: Obama Seeks Nobel Prize ‘Deadline’ for START III Treaty: Kommersant, Russia

By: dduck12

dduck12 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:23:54 +0000

Oh s——, I had it all wrong, I thought that he was going to follow Teddy Roosevelt and accept the prize after he left office. Oh, well, it's not carry a big stick, it's make great speeches, for him.

By: pacatrue

pacatrue — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:47:55 +0000

Obama's stance on nuclear disarmament is old. In his short time as a Senator, he worked on this issue and he has made his disarmament goal clear in speeches, such as to the UN.

I really don't fear Norwegian prize committee's influence on the U.S. If a President were to get a reward from Israel as a defender of its country and tried to finish an agreement that he/she had been working on for months or years before the prize was given, would people be upset?

By: DaGoat

DaGoat — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:01:12 +0000

Boy I have to disagree with you, paca. A committee of five Norwegians should not be influencing US foreign policy. I think you are being swayed since the treaty involves something you support – nuclear disarmament. Would you still welcome the Nobel Committee's influence if you did not support the treaty?

The US government should not be influenced by individual awards, especially ones from foreign countries. That should hold true regardless of the issue being discussed.

If the Russian article is false this becomes a moot point, of course.

By: pacatrue

pacatrue — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:08:11 +0000

As dagoat says, there's no evidence that this is in fact true.

At the same time, I believe one of the purposes of giving Obama the peace prize was to push him on treaties like this. If the Peace Prize does motivate him to prioritize nuclear arms reduction, I have no problem with that, assuming they do due diligence on the treaty itself.

By: DaGoat

DaGoat — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:27:30 +0000

The American right will no doubt have a field day with this article from Russia’s leading business daily, Kommersant.

And rightly so. Timing of treaties should not be decided in order to make the Nobel Prize appear more valid.

Hopefully the Russian article is in error.