President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo a mere week after announcing a major escalation in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Obama acknowledged the awkward timing in his acceptance speech, saying he respects icons of nonviolence Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., but "as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone." Still, with some Norwegians having second thoughts, and only about a quarter of Americans saying Obama deserved the prize, did the Nobel Committee pick the wrong man? (Watch a CNN panel discuss Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.)
The prize is a little premature: "I think if you are realistic, it may have been a little early" to award Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, said the Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, to Sky News. "But it doesn't matter, I know Obama is a very able person ... young and energetic," and the Nobel "gives him more encouragement and also gives him more moral personal responsibility."
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