Afghans puzzled by Obama's Nobel win

With the nation still wracked by violence and the president weighing a troop increase, the peace prize leaves people across the region scratching their heads.

11:06 AM PDT, October 9, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan

Many Afghans are illiterate, and people in the countryside, by and large, had never heard of the Nobel prizes. But even among the educated elite in big cities such as Kabul, there was some bemusement over President Obama's selection.

"I'm not sure I understand -- this isn't for peace here, is it?" said bank worker Homaira Reza. "Because we haven't got any."

Irfan Mohammed, whose shop windows were rattled a day earlier by a massive blast outside the Indian Embassy in central Kabul, said he believed Obama was a good man, and perhaps deserving of the laurel.

"But so far as Afghanistan goes, he hasn't made up his mind what to do," Mohammed said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose relations with the Obama administration have been distinctly chilly, congratulated the U.S. leader, expressing hopes that with Obama's "vision and leadership . . . peace and normalcy will return to Afghanistan and our region."

laura.king@latimes.com