President Barack Hussein Obama delivered yet another amazing speech as his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, as they are called, this week. There is a tremendous amount of materials there to deal with, but in South Asia, they took note of the president’s un-peace like warning to dictators around the world.

From The Irrawaddy:

In his speech, delivered in Oslo, Norway, Obama specifically mentioned Burma as one of the countries where there is systematic abuse of human rights by the government and honored opposition leader and fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for her commitment to democratic reform.

Acknowledging that he has adopted a policy of engagement with the Burmese junta, Obama said that “sanctions without outreach-and condemnation without discussion-can carry forward a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.”

However, he also warned that the world could not afford to ignore threats to peace from regimes that menace their neighbors or their own citizens.

“Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war. The same principle applies to those who violate international laws by brutalizing their own people,” he said.

“When there is genocide in Darfur, systematic rape in Congo, repression in Burma-there must be consequences,” he added.

“Yes, there will be engagement; yes, there will be diplomacy-but there must be consequences when those things fail. And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity in oppression.”