Obama defends US wars as he accepts peace prize

OSLO: President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to "reach for the world that ought to be."

Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland (L) applauds as Nobel  Peace Prize laureate US President Barack Obama poses with his diploma and  medal after receiving the prize at the award ceremony in Oslo City Hall  December 10, 2009.[Agencies]

A wartime president honored for peace, Obama became the first sitting US president in 90 years and the third ever to win the prize - some say prematurely. In this damp, chilly Nordic capital to pick it up, he and his wife, Michelle, whirled through a day filled with Nobel pomp and ceremony.

And yet Obama was staying here only about 24 hours and skipping the traditional second day of festivities. This miffed some in Norway but reflects a White House that sees little value in extra pictures of the president, his poll numbers dropping at home, taking an overseas victory lap while thousands of US troops prepare to go off to war and millions of Americans remain jobless.

Just nine days after ordering 30,000 more US troops into battle in Afghanistan, Obama delivered a Nobel acceptance speech that he saw as a treatise on war's use and prevention. He crafted much of the address himself and the scholarly remarks - at about 4,000 words - were nearly twice as long as his inaugural address.

In them, Obama refused to renounce war for his nation or under his leadership, saying defiantly that "I face the world as it is" and that he is obliged to protect and defend the United States.