An Open Letter to The Norwegian Nobel Committee
On December 10, you will award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama, citing "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people." We the undersigned are distressed that President Obama, so close upon his receipt of this honor, has opted to escalate the U.S. war in Afghanistan with the deployment of 30,000 additional troops. We regret that he could not be guided by the example of a previous Nobel Peace Laureate, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who identified his peace prize as "profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time — the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression."
President Obama has insisted that his troop escalation is a necessary response to dangerous instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but we reject the notion that military action will advance the region’s stability, or our own national security. In his peace prize acceptance speech, Dr. King observed that "Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts…man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation." As people committed to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are filled with remorse by this new decision of our president, for it will not bring peace.
Declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War, Dr. King insisted that "no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war…We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways… We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest."
We pledge ourselves to mobilize our constituencies in the spirit of Dr. King’s nonviolent and committed example. His prophetic words will guide us as we assemble in the halls of Congress, in local offices of elected representatives, and in the streets of our cities and towns, protesting every proposal that will continue funding war. We will actively and publicly oppose the war funding which President Obama will soon seek from Congress and re-commit ourselves to the protracted struggle against U.S. war-making in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We assume that the Nobel Committee chose to award President Obama the peace prize in full awareness of the vision offered by Dr. King’s acceptance speech. We also understand that the Nobel Committee may now regret that decision in light of recent developments, as we believe that the committee should be reluctant to present an Orwellian message equating peace with war. When introducing the President, the Committee should, at the very least, exhibit a level of compassion and humility by drawing attention to this distressing ambiguity.
We will do all we can to ensure that popular pressure will soon bring President Obama to an acceptance of the duties which this prize, and even more his electoral mandate to be a figure of change, impose upon him. He must end the catastrophic policies of occupation and war that have caused so much destruction, so many deaths and displacements, and so much injury to our own democratic traditions.
This prize is not a meaningless honor. We pledge, ourselves obeying its call to nonviolent action, to make our President worthy of it.
Jack Amoureux — Board of Directors, Military Families Speak Out
Medea Benjamin — Co-Founder, Global Exchange
Frida Berrigan — Witness Against Torture
Elaine Brower — World Can’t Wait
Leslie Cagan — Co-Founder, United for Peace and Justice
Bob Cooke — Regional Coordinator, Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi Metro, DC and Baltimore
Tom Cornell — Catholic Peace Fellowship
Matt Daloisio — War Resisters League
Marie Dennis — Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Laurie Dobson — Director, End US Wars
Mike Ferner — President, Veterans for Peace
Joy First — Convener, National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance
Sara Flounders — International Action Center
Diana Gibson, Christian Peace Witness
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb — Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence
David Hartsough — Peaceworkers, San Francisco
Mike Hearington — Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition
Kimber J. Heinz — Organizing Coordinator, War Resisters League
Mark Johnson — Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Kathy Kelly — Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Non-Violence
Leslie Kielson — United for Peace and Justice
Malachy Kilbride — National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
Kevin Martin — Executive Director-Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund
Linda LeTendre — Saratoga [New York] Peace Alliance
Michael McPhearson — Veterens for Peace
Gael Murphy — Co-Founder, Code Pink
Sheila Musaji — The American Muslim
Michael Nagler — Founder, Metta Center for Nonviolence
Max Obuszewski — Pledge of Resistance Baltimore and Baltimore Nonviolence Center
Pete Perry — Peace of the Action
Dave Robinson — Executive Director, Pax Christi
David Swanson — AfterDowningStreet.org
Terry Rockefeller — Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Samina Sundas — Founding Executive Director, The American Muslim Voice
Nancy Tsou — Coordinator, Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice
Diane Turco — Cape Codders for Peace and Justice
Marge Van Cleef — Womens International League for Peace and Freedom
Jose Vasquez — Executive Director, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Craig Wiesner — Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice
Scott Wright — Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore
Kevin Zeese — Executive Director, Voters for Peace
Along with delivering this open letter to the Nobel Peace Committee, activists will present it at a rally in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. on Saturday, December 12th, 11 — 4, enduswar.org
Read more by Kathy Kelly
- Truth and Trauma in Gaza – December 2nd, 2012
- Survival and Dignity in an Afghan Winter – October 30th, 2012
- Soft Necks Will Not Be Slaughtered – July 29th, 2012
- The Sky as It Falls – July 23rd, 2012
- Out to the Wall – June 7th, 2012
jojo
December 10th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
How forgetful, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman both got the nobel prize. Both mass murderers,millions died on packs off lies.
Nobel prize is a sinister plot to fool the general public to support wars.Remember the Iranian lady who got the nobel prize–all to get at Iran's face :^/
T.N
December 10th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Surely the prize has been given before to people who didn't deserved it as such.
I'm sure the committee is very aware of that fact and to remind them that they should straighten up the evaluation of the values or merits someone needs to have in order to really deserve a peace prize is not something that should be out of order.
Mistakes have been made in the past, no doubt, but that is not a good reason to repeat them.
On the side:
"Veterens" for Peace, is that a typo?
screeeeeeeaaaaaaaam
December 10th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
If you ever needed an example of how useless today's "antiwar movement", this letter is a wonderful example.
First, what are they asking for? The letter is so badly written, I bet you have to read it at least twice to figure it out. When you do, you'll be disappointed. All they are asking for is that the introduction to Mr. Obama point out that he is a warmonger who's escalating wars. Wow, that'll certainly end the wars and change the world.
These people are the supposed 'leaders' (self-appointed) of the view of 60%-70% of Americans who want these wars to end. And yet, all they can do is issue a badly-written letter that meekly asks for something as weak as this?
The key is for people to organize. Forget the antiwar movement. Forget these weak and ineffectual self-appointed leaders. Organize in your area today. One possible target is to stage '3rd party/independent' races that take votes away from pro-war incumbents. Be strong. Be forthright in your views. And don't trust or follow self-appointed leaders. Including writers like me. :) Be free!
If we wait on these spinless fools who wrote this letter to end this war, then we are going to have a very long war.
Homer
December 10th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I am outraged by Obama's pro-war speech today justifying America's Imperial wars. Who needs Bush when you have Obama? For starters, Obama made the case for unilateral war in his speech today. In essence, by justifying the legitimacy of unilateralism, he continued and supports the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive wars. As of yet, Obama has not at all worked towards repudiating the Bush Doctrine and he has Dick Cheney there to remind him not to do so if he tries it. Don't worry Mr. Cheney, Obama lacks the spine to "change" anything other than speak in riddles. Now, Obama speaks in better prose than Bush did, but, he is also a man of American conquest just as his predecessors had been.
Kudos to Ms. Kelly and her pals for having a deep moral conscience. I am so happy that you and others have sent a letter to the Nobel Committee about Obama's award.
Homer
December 10th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
The prayers for America are not vested in any political party or ideology at this time. America's political leaders are all morally and ethically empty and spiritually bankrupt. America's political leaders are bloodlust heathens no matter what "religion" than claim to profess.
Obama failed to point out that the U.S. has ignored many of those international laws and agreements it signed on to after World War II. That the U.S. is very selective when it comes to singling out Nation A from Nation B in regard to UN Security Council violations. Or the fact that at this time, the U.S. has violated the Ban on Torture Treaty and pulled out of the ABM Treaty unilaterally with Putin during the Bush years and still has failed to sign onto the Ban the Landmine Treaty and the International Criminal Court. That the laws made after WWII were made with the interests of the U.S. in mind and that the U.S. selectively chooses when it needs to adhere to those international laws.
grg
December 10th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
It is a sad fact but there is one anti war party in the western world: The British National Party. Sure you may have to hold your nose to vote for them, but they are it. I wish there was an alternative. There is no equivalent in the US. If you could end the war in Afghanistan by voting for the BNP would you?
Paul Alexander
December 10th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I think that all anti-war "leaders" are a bunch of self interested losers, but Kathy Kelly is not one of them. The letter itself may be ineffectual, but Ms. Kelly has put herself out in harms way in a way that most people won't even allow themselves to imagine. She leads by example and I would guess doesn't consider herself the leader of anyone. She's been to prison over her beliefs and spends much of her time with the victims of America's violence in the Middle East. I think the over inflation of individuals is a (the?) major problem with most movements but Ms. Kelly is definitely not looking for sefl aggrandizement.