An antiwar demonstration in New York’s Times Square, where leaflets were handed out calling for protests to coincide with the ceremony to award President Obama the Nobel prize. It looks like President Obama is unlikely to get the Nobel Peace Prize without the occasion being marked by protests. At least one antiwar group is already calling for a midday march to the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station in New York’s Times Square to coincide with the award ceremony in Oslo City Hall on December 10, the date on which Alfred Nobel died.
Days before the event protesters were already handing out leaflets headlined: ‘You Don’t End a War By Sending More Troops! Stop the Occupation of Afghanistan.”
Another group has already posted an online petition criticizing it as an “absurd” and “premature” decision.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on October 9 that the prize would go to President Obama, citing “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.
Responding to the announcement, President Obama said: “I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”