Not Quite, Tom ...

Tom Friedman has probably forgotten more than I will ever learn, and I have read some of his books and read his column in the NY Times faithfully. Today, he let me down.

Weighing in on the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama, Friedman commends the president for receiving the prize “as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” (Read the full culumn at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11friedman.html.)

Then Friedman writes Pres. Obama's acceptance speech for him. "Peacekeeping" is done by "peacekeepers", writes Friedman, and in his recommended "acceptance speech", "peacekeepers" apparently are always soldiers.

America's military make sacrifices every day, sometimes putting their lives on the line. They deserve our support, the best equipment we can provide, and more than just a parade when they return home, often to families splintered and fractured by extended separations and the painful reality of post-traumatic stress. But our teachers put their lives on the line, too - and they deserve our support, the best equipment, and more than an apple on their desk.

Emergency medical personnel put their lives on the line ... and so do politicians. You get my point. "Peacekeeping" is not a profession. Friedman quotes the prophet Isaiah in his column today - as if to say that the challenge of convincing nations to put down their swords is solely on the shoulders of the military. He has it wrong. And Obama is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize precisely because he refuses to look at the world's conflicts only through the lens of a rifle scope.

How long will it take us to acknowledge that guns - no matter how big - are not enough? They never were; they never will be. If stating that fact is a bruise to the military's ego, then so be it. It's not intended to be, and I'm not so naive as to assume all the world's problems can be solved at a Kum ba yah Sit-In. But much of the world reads Tom Friedman. He has earned his audience. He has challenged us to re-think corporate strategy, to take stock of our educational system, to wake up to the realities of climate change. Today he put soldiering and peace in the same bag and then he tied the knot. He did the Nobel Committee, our President, our Military - all of us - a disservice.

Tom, usually you are right on the mark. But, today ... not quite.