Obama defends US wars as he accepts peace prize

US President Barack Obama, right is applauded by Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize during a ceremony in the Main Hall of Oslo City Hall in Oslo, Norway. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Eleven months into his presidency, a fresh Obama doctrine. Evil must be vigorously opposed, he declared as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today. At the same time, he made an impassioned case for building a "just and lasting peace."

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people," Obama told his audience in Oslo's soaring City Hall. "For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world."

Pronouncing himself humbled by such an honour so early in "my labours on the world stage," Obama nevertheless turned his Nobel moment into an unapologetic defence of armed intervention in times of self defence or moral necessity. The hawkish message was an inevitable nod to the controversy defining his selection: an American president, lauded for peace just as he escalates the long, costly war in Afghanistan.

It was a jarring moment when Obama, in the midst of the ceremony, said of his troops in Afghanistan: "Some will kill. Some will be killed."

He lauded previous Nobel winners Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., preachers of nonviolent action. But he added, "A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida'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 president laid out circumstances in which war is justified - in self-defence, to come to the aid of an invaded nation, on humanitarian grounds such as when civilians are slaughtered by their own government.

At the same time, he also stressed a need to fight war according to "rules of conduct" that reject torture, the murder of innocents and other atrocities.

"We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend," he said. "And we honour those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard."

He emphasised a need to exhaust alternatives to violence, including worldwide sanctions with teeth to confront nations such as Iran or North Korea that defy international demands. He pushed himself away from George W. Bush in defending diplomatic outreach that engages even enemies. He defined peace as civil rights, free speech and economic opportunity, not just the absence of conflict.

"Let us reach for the world that ought to be," Obama said. "We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace."

He noted that although many nations have joined the US in its efforts in Afghanistan, "in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter what the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower."

"But 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 centerpiece of Obama's swift trip to Europe, the speech doubled the length of his inaugural address. Appearing tired here, Obama had worked all the way through the night on the flight to Norway, an aide said.

Such is the weight of he prize. Suddenly and forever, Obama is in the company of Gandhi, King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama.

He drew laughter from his hosts when he acknowledged "the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated."