as activists protest Afghanistan troop surge, Peace Treaty Forum shows Obama’s Nobel Prize speech

On Dec. 10, 2006, Sen. Barack Obama made his first ever appearance in New Hampshire, speaking at the Frank Jones Center in Portsmouth about his book “The Audacity of Hope,” on the eve of announcing his run for president. Exactly three years later, on Thursday, Dec. 10, President Obama will be in Oslo, Norway, to accept his Nobel Peace Prize.

Charles Doleac points out that many of the issues Obama discussed during his initial Seacoast visit three years ago illustrate why the Nobel Committee decided to award him the prize. In a local newspaper interview conducted that day, Obama spoke of the importance of changing U.S. foreign policy and enhancing international diplomacy.

Doleac is chairman of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum, which will rebroadcast Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle. The full-length, unedited rebroadcast is part of the Forum’s annual commemoration of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, which he won for mediating negotiations that led to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty and ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

Roosevelt was the first sitting U.S. president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; Obama is only the third (Woodrow Wilson won the prize in 1920). Doleac expects a powerful acceptance speech.

“I think it is fair to say that when Obama has been given a chance to make a speech, on many occasions he’s done quite a good job of it,” Doleac said. “Can you think of a more important forum for someone to give the speech that will perhaps be one of the greatest speeches he will ever give?”

Many people are skeptical of the Nobel Committee’s decision to give Obama the prize—especially in light of the president’s recent announcement of plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Obama made the announcement on Dec. 1, detailing his plan to begin withdrawing troops in mid 2011. The next day, anti-war activists rallied in downtown Portsmouth to protest the surge.

“I’m a Vietnam vet, and the situation developing here sounds way too familiar,” said Wes Flierl, of Rochester. “I don’t like diplomacy by military force and occupation.”

Flierl said he finds it ironic that Obama will be accepting the Peace Prize so soon after he announced the surge. So does Amy Antonucci, of Seacoast Peace Response. “I don’t agree with accepting a peace prize while waging a war,” she said.

Andrea LeBlanc, of Lee, was disappointed that Obama invoked the Sept. 11 attacks in defense of the troop surge. LeBlanc’s husband Robert was onboard the second plane that crashed into the World Trade Center, and she has since become a member of the organization September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which opposes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We just don’t want more killing in our families’ names,” LeBlanc said. “The military solution hasn’t been a solution.”

Although the United States is still fighting two foreign wars, Doleac does not see a conflict between Obama’s military policies and his Nobel Prize selection. He noted that Roosevelt, too, was a controversial selection more than a century ago. Roosevelt was known as a fiery and aggressive leader who famously quoted the proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”

“We now know that there was quite a fight in 1906 because of his bellicose reputation,” Doleac said.

But he stressed that the Peace Treaty Forum’s rebroadcast of Obama’s speech is not meant as a political statement. Although he personally believes Obama is worthy of the prize, he acknowledges that there are legitimate arguments to the contrary. Regardless, he said, the acceptance speech will be an important one.

“I’ve got a secret suspicion that whether you agree with (Obama) or not, he’s gonna swing for the fences,” Doleac said.

The event at Wentworth by the Sea begins at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 12. Donations of $10 are requested. To reserve tickets in advance, contact Stephanie Seacord at 603-772-1835 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it