Obama's Nobel Speech Lasts Almost An Hour

Jillian Bandes | December 10, 2009 10:47 AM

Audiences were ~~captivated~~ dazed over Obama's marathon Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which vacillated between affirmations of pacificm and violence. During his fifty-two minute diatribe, he justified increased military force in the Middle East, condemned "holy war," and said that peace without military reinforcement was meaningless.

“The purpose of military action extends beyond self defense,” said Obama, while citing MLK and Gandhi as the gold standard for international relations. Apparently, we need military force to back up what MLK and Gandhi wanted.... but Napoleon to carry it out.

Obama focused in on this notion of doling out consequences for lack of peace, as well as the priority of "not going it alone." Alltogether, he sounded fairly hawkish, for someone who just decided to ~~surrender~~ withdraw American troops at a pre-determined point.

Mostly, it seemed like he wanted influence.... some way, some how.