Peace requires sacrifice - Obama

At once grave and humble, United States President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo yesterday and told his audience in the glittering City Hall an uncomfortable truth in such surroundings: the "imperfections of man and the limits of reason" mean that bloodshed must sometimes come before peace.

"I understand why war is not popular. But I also know this: the belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it," he said.

"Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice."

He went on: "We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations - acting individually or in concert - will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified."

The 35-minute speech came barely 10 days after Obama announced he was sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan.

But he shrugged off the narrow concerns of domestic political pressures to offer a personal meditation on the concept of "just war".

The Nobel Committee gave this year's prize to Obama because of the start he had made as the US President, not just by banning torture and pledging to close down Guantanamo, but also giving a new priority to bridging divides and reaching out to old enemies.

Critics have labelled this approach naive and asked where the foreign policy fruits of it are.

The President's caravan of limousines, carrying him, the first lady, Michelle, senior aides and close family friends, was greeted by cheering crowds but also a big banner that read: "Obama you won it. Now earn it."

But in Oslo, some of Obama's foreign policy idealism gave ground to a more sober realism.

He applauded the pacifism preached by some of the prize's previous winners - he cited both Martin Luther King and Gandhi (who did not win the prize) - but added that pacifism was not always enough.

"A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."

Obama said that perceptions of the US as an unwelcome aggressor were rooted in "a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower".

But history will be kinder, he said.

"Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms."

He added: "But in a world in which threats are more diffuse and missions more complex, America cannot act alone. This is true in Afghanistan. This is true in failed states like Somalia, where terrorism and piracy is joined by famine and human suffering. And sadly, it will continue to be true in unstable regions for years to come."

Obama also offered his own definition of real peace and how, once in place, it could be sustained.

"Peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders ... a just peace includes not only civil and political rights - it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want."

The "vital ingredients" to nurture it, he went on, are: "Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development ... and yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, or the staying power, to complete this work without something more - and that is the continued expansion of our moral imagination; an insistence that there is something irreducible that we all share."

He concluded: "Let us reach for the world that ought to be, that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls."

- INDEPENDENT