World’s view matters

I am dismayed by the politically driven criticism of President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, an honor to our whole country. Clearly, the Nobel committee recognizes something that the average American does not: In today’s globalized and media-frenzied world, perception is critically important in creating and maintaining any hint of peace in any portion of our interconnected planet.

The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what the average disinterested and uninformed American thinks about foreign affairs or about the impact of their new president in the global arena; it doesn’t even matter much what our bickering elected representatives think. What matters most is what the world’s people and leaders perceive, and the rest of the world perceives that President Obama, in a spirit of genuine goodwill, has accomplished a momentous task.

Restoring confidence in U.S. leadership that was all but destroyed in recent years is no small feat, and it is not only essential to world peace but to our very survival as a nation. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the president is his ability to sustain this fragile shift in perception in a pervasive climate of domestic political strife, which has effectively tied both hands behind his back.

Jennifer Al-Abboud

Spokane