Hats off to Mr. Obama. If you haven't been following the Nobel Prize.... thing.... take a moment to view the very brief clip posted above.

Obama could have made his acceptance speech about himself. He could have made it about how bad Mr. Bush was as president, and he could have used it to suck up to the Europeans, the Chinese or anybody else.

But he didn't.

I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

I raise this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause. At times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower.

Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions - not just treaties and declarations - that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest - because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other peoples' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.

In addition to being a job well-done, this was something else for the White House: a golden opportunity.

This was a golden opportunity for the Obama administration to say to the people and leaders of those nations who find it so convenient to bash America that he is an American Commander-in-Chief first and always; not merely a global citizen. He was given the opportunity to say clearly to the entire global peace movement: I will fight wars to ensure the safety of my citizens and the security of America, her friends and allies.

This is a great political win for the administration, because it gave Mr. Obama an opportunity to look tough and assertive and against-the-grain at a time when many - certainly myself included - continue to question certain of his foreign policy initiatives.

Of course, the Obama White House was either too cautious or too classy to do more to contrast themselves with peaceniksin an attempt to win over more Independents and open-minded Republicans at home; he could have gone even further and showed and even clearer contrast because Obama-esque realism and pascifist utopianism. That they did not go further is laudable.