A wartime president being honored for peace, Barack Obama said Thursday that criticism of his Nobel prize as premature might recede if he advances goals such as a nuclear-free world and tackling climate change.
But, he added, proving doubters wrong is 'not really my concern.'
'If I'm not successful, then all the praise in the world won't disguise that fact,' said Obama from this chilly, damp Nordic capital where he is picking up his Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel committee announced Obama had won the peace prize in October when he wasn't even nine months on the job, recognizing his aspirations to reshape the way the U.S. deals with the world much more than his actual achievements. 'It was a great surprise to me,' Obama said after meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. 'I have no doubt that there are others who may be more deserving.'
Adding fresh irony to the award, Obama announced just days before coming here to formally accept it that he is ordering 30,000 more U.S. troops into war in Afghanistan. Debate over that decision followed the president to Norway, where he told reporters that that the July 2011 date he set for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to begin will not slip — but that the pace of the full drawdown will be gradual and conditions-based.
By: Brant
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