Obama advocates ‘war for peace’ theory,accepts Nobel

“But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation,I cannot be guided by their (Gandhi and Dr King) examples alone. I face the world as it is,and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people,” the 48-year-old President said.

The president acknowledged that many people feel he has not done enough to deserve the prize that he received in Oslo. He also noted that he recently ordered another 30,000 US troops to fight in Afghanistan.

People must accept “the hard truth” that violence cannot be eradicated and nations sometimes must wage war to protect their citizens from evil regime or terrorist groups.

He said a non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies and negotiations cannot persuade al-Qaida’s leaders to disarm.

“…part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly irreconcilable truths,that war is sometimes necessary,and war is at some level an expression of human feelings,” the US President said.

Noting that terrorism has long been a tactic,Obama said modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.

“Moreover,wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements,insurgencies,and failed states; have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos,” Obama said as he pledged the USD 1.4 million prize to charity. In today’s wars,many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sewn,economies are wrecked,civil societies torn asunder,refugees amassed,and children scarred,” the President said.

Describing disarmament as a “centerpiece” of his foreign policy,Obama said he was committed to upholding the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and that he was working with Russian President Medvedev to reduce America and Russia’s nuclear stockpiles.

“In the middle of the last century,nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear: all will have access to peaceful nuclear power; those without nuclear weapons will forsake them; and those with nuclear weapons will work toward disarmament,” Obama said.

He is the third sitting US president to win the award after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former US president Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002.