Does Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? (1)

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama is arguably one of the most absurd decisions that the Nobel Committee has ever made.

It is a highly patronising gesture that will be received with incredulity around the world. In fact, there has rarely been an award that has been so obviously partisan and political in its intention.

The award is apparently an encouragement to America's first black President and a way of saying that we hope there is going to be a new direction in Washington policy. But this undermines the point of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Obama has only been in office since the beginning of the year. While his aims for peace are noble, his achievements are few. So far, he has done nothing in the Middle East and done nothing to improve relations with the Russians.

In his own country, he has actually undermined peace by becoming the most pro-abortion President ever to be elected. Former Nobel winner Mother Teresa once said that the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.

To award a prize simply on hope suggests a naivety and a blindness that I think will only damage the value of the prize and diminish its value to all its previous winners.