My friend Russell Fox makes a reasoned case that Barack Obama doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. I would have liked to see Russell attend to the more obvious reason why Obama doesn't deserve a peace prize: He's a corporate-supported warmonger who campaigned on a promise to "win" the war in Afghanistan: a war inspired not by the attacks of 9-11 (which were not carried out by Afghans, after all) but by U.S. aspirations for oil and regional hegemony.
Unfortunately, the characteristically immature, racist, and hysterical reaction to the award on the part of many conservative pundits has put Americans who pay attention to these issues in the position of feeling as if they have to choose sides. Criticizing Obama for accepting the award is now, for all intents and purposes in this strange-bedfellows state of politics today, tantamount to hopping in bed with birthers and McVeighites. So even if I don't think he deserves the award, I don't see a whole lot of public space from which to criticize the choice. Not when the alternative is to give aid and comfort to incipient fascists who fantasize about Obama being assassinated or thrown out in a military coup.
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