[Peace-discuss] Toby Keith sings of peace

[unionyes]

This is Orwellian surreal at it's most disgusting and bizarre !

David J.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 7:43 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Toby Keith sings of peace


> [I have no idea who Toby Keith is, except that he's an idiot.  --CGE]
>
>
> Toby Keith stands by war before Nobel peace show
> By IAN MacDOUGALL (AP)
>
> OSLO — There's no reason to apologize for supporting U.S. war efforts,
> American country singer Toby Keith said Friday, just hours before
> performing at the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert.
>
> Keith, whose 2002 saber-rattling hit "Courtesy of the Red, White and
> Blue (The Angry American)" was inspired by the Sept. 11 terrorist
> attacks, said he stands by President Barack Obama's decision to send
> 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
>
> Keith's appearance at the downtown Oslo Spektrum arena, scheduled for
> 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST), has been questioned by Norwegians dismayed that
> a performer known for a fervent pro-war anthem is playing at a show
> focused on peace.
>
> The musician dismissed the criticism.
>
> "If President Obama has to send (more) troops into Afghanistan to
> fight evil, I'll pull for our guys to win, and I won't apologize for
> it," Keith said. "I'm an American, and I do pull for our team to fight
> evil."
>
> His comments come the day after Obama traveled to Oslo to collect his
> Nobel Peace Prize and defended his decision to increase troop levels
> in Afghanistan. "Make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world," Obama
> said in Thursday's speech.
>
> The peace prize laureate normally attends the concert, which is held
> in his or her honor. Obama's seat, however, will remain empty. The
> president left the Norwegian capital early Friday morning, blaming a
> jammed schedule for cutting the usual three-day stay to just over 24
> hours.
>
> Norwegian parliamentarians and a former Norwegian Nobel Committee
> member criticized Keith's invitation.
>
> "If Keith really means what he says in his lyrics, then this doesn't
> seem like a particularly good decision," Norwegian Labor MP Tove
> Karoline Knutsen told Norwegian daily VG in November.
>
> The Norwegian Nobel Committee's permanent secretary, Geir Lundestad,
> has defended his appearance. "We need to include a wide variety of
> artists," he told broadcaster NRK shortly after the line-up was
> announced. "So, it's not like we can exclude conservative artists."
>
> Keith said that "if someone wants to say that one song out of 30
> million albums sold and 27 No. 1's is inappropriate, then you can jump
> up and down about the one song," apparently in reference to "Courtesy
> of the Red, White and Blue."
>
> Keith added that this was the second year in a row the Norwegian Nobel
> Committee had invited him to perform at the concert.
>
> Keith spoke to journalists Friday alongside Nobel Concert hosts —
> movie star and rapper Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett
> Smith. Other artists, including British pop singer Natasha
> Bedingfield, also spoke at the event.
>
> Smith, whose Thursday interview with Obama during the president's stay
> in Oslo will be shown at the concert Friday night, said he had no
> reservations about Obama's peace prize despite his status as an early
> first-term wartime president.
>
> Whether Barack Obama as an individual deserved the prize was up for
> debate, he said. "But Barack Obama as an idea has transcended so many
> avenues that there's positively no debate that he deserved this
> honor," he said.
>
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iaE0LphGXd9xP4dVERMGFqViScwQD9CH80SO0
>
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