"America's founders knew all too well how war appeals to the vanity of rulers and their thirst for glory. That's why they took care to deny presidents the kingly privilege of making war at their own discretion. But after 9/11 President Bush, with obvious relish, declared himself a `war president.' And he kept the nation focused on martial matters by morphing the pursuit of al Qaeda into a war against Saddam Hussein," Paul Krugman, the recipient of 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, wrote in a New York Times op-ed titled "The War President" in 2005.
It would be fair to say that Obama inherited two wars, but he has a new war under his watch-the war in Libya, which has arguably turned him into a "war president". Although the argument that the situation in Libya is "unique" and military action was needed to avert a massacre that Qadhafi had promised against his own people and that could have changed the course of Arab Revolution in North Africa and the Middle East has many willing buyers, his becoming a "war President" has given birth to some questions: Is he still an honourable recipient of Nobel Peace Prize? Should Peace Prize to him be revoked if he himself doesn't give it back?
Before Obama, three other US Presidents won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919) and Jimmy Carter (2002). Writer and film-maker Tariq Ali tells the host of RT Crosstalk in the April 4 broadcast, Peter Lavelle, that intervention in Libya is indeed a war. According to him, Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize although the Nobel committee knew full well that during his election campaign he said he was going to escalate the war in Afghanistan - "which he has" - and there had been more drone attacks on Pakistan under him than during the eight years of his predecessor George W. Bush.
"They knew that Obama was going to do that when they gave him the prize. They were relieved to be relieved of Bush. They were drooling at the mouth at the sight of Obama, and essentially couldn't wait to hand him the prize. I mean ... to be fair, even he was slightly embarrassed... . Peter they do not go in for revoking the prizes. They wallow in their mistakes and I don't think any Nobel Prize recipient is going to give it back either," he says.
According to scholar Bill Snyder, the question whether intervention in Libya is an act of war by the US and its allies has not been discussed in the US. The US administration calls it a time-limited intervention to save people's lives. They do not think it is a war. The administration does not even use the words "regime change", although President Obama has clearly stated the objective is to get Qadhafi out of power.
"It's an act of war. There's no question about it. When you send over 100 Tomahawk missles to 104 different sites, when you have 82,000 kg bombs to be dropped, when you are talking about establishing a no-flying zone so no one else can fly through from Libya. If that's not an act of war than what it is?" This was stated by US congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has been highly critical of Obama's decision to strike Libya, at al-Jazeera's Riz Khan show about two weeks ago.
This Democratic Representative also has argued President Obama may have committed an "impeachable offense" by committing US military forces to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya without congressional approval. He tells DemocracyNow that "this president has assumed power that no president, not even President Bush, has assumed ...I think that we need to focus on this, not as a matter of whether we like President Obama or not, not as a matter of whether we are Democrats or not, but whether or not we understand the basic constitutional principles of the separation of power."
Announcing the Nobel Peace Prize 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee had stated that "Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts...."
(To be continued)