WASHINGTON — In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, President Obama made a case for “just” war and American unilateralism.

In an address in Oslo, Obama was personally apologetic, but an aggressive defender of the United States.

He described himself as less worthy than prize-winning predecessors, including Martin Luther King Jr. and the dissidents and activists for peace and human rights imprisoned or persecuted around the globe today.

While acquiescing to criticism in the United States that this award had come too early for him, Obama answered critics back home who have accused him of being an American apologist. He reminded his European audience of past American sacrifice in two world wars that began on that continent and of the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after World War II.

The speech illustrated how Obama has changed after nearly a year in office.

Seventeen months ago, as a candidate for the presidency, the then-senator told a huge crowd in Berlin about his desire for a more humble American foreign policy. But the audacious hope of 2008 is newly tempered by the inescapable reality of each morning’s national security threat matrix.

“As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence,” Obama said. “I know there’s nothing weak — nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

“But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is and cannot stand idle on the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world.”

He added: “I, like any head of state, reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation.”

On that point, there is no daylight between Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, who used the same doctrine to invade Iraq. Obama mentioned war 44 times and peace 32 times in his speech.

“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 said. “The service and sacrifice of our citizens and the strength of men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans.”

Such passages could quiet critics who say Obama’s foreign policy has been too apologetic, his way forward too accommodating of despotic regimes in Tehran and Pyongyang.

He acknowledged his decisions to end torture of suspected terrorists and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. But he focused more on the urgency of defeating the new enemies of peace — “a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.”

Obama acknowledged the paradox of a Nobel Peace Prize winner who just ordered 30,000 more troops to a war in Afghanistan.

“Some will kill,” Obama said, “and some will be killed.”

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)