This afternoon in Oslo President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at the annual presentation of the Nobel awards and gave a highly anticipated speech to the world.  In attendance was the Norwegian Royal family among other dignitaries and prize prize winners.

In his speech he was humble and acknowledged the controversy in the United States surrounding the award going to the President before he had achieved much of what he campaigned on and becasue he is the commander and chief of a nation involved in two armed conflicts.  The President also walked the line between war and justified war as a sometimes necessary instrument of peace, using the invasion of Afghanistan and the first Iraq war when that country invaded Kuwait as an example of world wide consensus on action.  He qualified his comments on justified war by acknowledging that when a country like the United States doesn't follow the rules of a justified war, which include self defence, that they lose credibility.  This is especially true when having to intervene in future conflicts as well as promoting human rights and equality of opportunity around the world.

The President then turned to a list of three goals or achievements he was pursuing as a means to lead to the future peace and stability of all regions of the world.  The first were his efforts, along with President Medvedev of Russia, to negotiate a serious reduction of the two nation's nuclear stockpiles. 

The second point Obama mentioned was that peace was not peace without the enforcement of human rights equally across all peoples, referring to the genocide in Darfur.  He said that in the absence, or even failure of diplomacy, there must be consequences for those perpetrating heinous acts like in Darfur and those who would pursue nuclear ambitions like Iran and North Korea. 

Lastly the President talked about the need to embrace reform in the face of climate change, saying that it wasn't just environmentalists and scientists pushing for action but his own military leaders who recognize the security issues created by climate change.  Massive waves of humanity moving as refugees from one place to another can only ignite conflict among the nations of the world and exacerbate the current threat of terrorism.

President Obama ended on a note of hope, but that he didn't think these goals could be achieved in the current political climate, at least not without help.