The president has been under rising pressure from his netroot left in the U.S. to abandon even "the good war" in Afghanistan, but the Nobel Prize was awarded on his rhetoric and action up to this point, and that has been the rhetoric of commitment to the eight year battle to suppress Islamist radicalism in Central Asia and the action of sending thousands of additional troops to the theater. Indeed this has been the president's single most significant set of decisions on the global stage since taking office, and the Nobel Committee surely knew of them when making its decision. If the left needs ratification of the importance of Afghanistan, the Nobel Prize must surely be it.
Very credible reports recounted French President Sarkozy's disgust with the punted opportunity which the American president had when he chaired the Security Council last month, a moment that would have allowed for maximum pressure on the nuke-mad mullahs of Iran. President Obama now gets a do-over on that subject as well. The gravest threat to world peace is the regime in Tehran, and they are serial murderers of their own people as well, and assassins of their neighbors and funders of terrorism across the region.
The world's most prestigious award presents a chance for President Obama to deliver a message that cannot be missed and commit to a course that is as serious as the Committee has often not been. Americans should be proud that our presidency is so significant that its occupant can by the hope of his years ahead alone command the world's applause. If our president uses the moment, we can be prouder still. Much prouder.