Friday, December 25, 2015

Peace on Earth and the Man of Peace

Peace on Earth, a promise of Christmas.

It is easy to bemoan the state of the world and say there is no peace and that there is lots of war. But this is not true.

There is little war as compared with prior eras. This is not to excuse the war in Syria or Iraq and Afghanistan. But we should keep perspective so as to have hope and courage.

Some people sneered when Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize as a new president. But he has now certainly earned it. He has rid the world of Bin Laden, a destroyer of peace. He has severely reduced American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. He led Putin into getting rid of Assad's chemical weapons. He got an agreement with Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons. He stopped Putin taking over the entirety of Ukraine. He has led Putin (yep, again!) to agree to a peace process for Syria. He has ended nearly 60 years of hostility with Cuba. He has brought China to an agreement on global warming. And don't question the peace facet of the China agreement. If global warming continues unabated, we will face water-starved Chinese storming our western shore.

Obama is indeed a man of peace. I have seen them all since FDR, and no other president after FDR has done as much for peace as has Obama.

He was indeed a gift to the world, and I am sad that 2016 will mark the closing of his presidency.

Peace on Earth. He did a lot to bring it about. Thank you, Mr. President.