A groundswell is building for President Obama to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the U.S. military.
Conservatives and liberals alike want the president to remind the world that it is largely because of our military that freedom and democracy -- peace -- exists in places they otherwise wouldn't.
That kind of message delivered by someone of Obama's talents would be powerful, inspiring. I hope he takes the suggestion.
I'd only add a couple things: the names of those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, as did Army Spc. Curtis Applegate, whose parents live in Surfside Beach, and Ronald Phillips Jr., whose parents continue to mourn him in their Conway home.
It's an odd-sounding thing to say that war has created or helped sustain peace, but it has. The most-cited example is the defeat of Hitler's Nazi machine during World War II. Hitler's atrocities were innumerable and he was determined to slaughter and control millions more. The Allied Forces, led by the U.S. military, stopped him. Obama's speech would be a good time to remind the world of their efforts.
But it also would be a good time to remind Americans that we didn't win that war alone and can't create or sustain further peace efforts without help, like that given by 11 Norwegians who disabled a Nazi plant in the early 1940s. I first learned their story in the book "E=mc2," which explains Albert Einstein's famous equation and its role as the catalyst for creation of the atomic bomb.
Even though Einstein warned U.S. officials the Nazi machine could develop a new kind of bomb, we got off to a late start. German scientists were ahead of us and figured massive amounts of "heavy water" would be the key in sparking the fusion process needed for atomic weapon. Those Norwegians sabotaged the Nazi's primary heavy water plant, giving us time to develop the dreaded weapon first.
As much devastation as that bomb caused, the world would be far different had Hitler developed it first.
But he didn't, because of the combined actions of Americans and Norwegians and so many others.
It would be great if Obama used his Nobel speech as a history lesson for the world -- and for us.