Imagine if George W Bush had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize just 12 days after taking office in 2001 and then receiving the award on October 9, 2001, when his personal favorability ratings were at their peak and the most of the world stood with America in the aftermath of 9/11. Liberals, Democrats, Republicans -- anybody -- would rightfully call it a joke and a travesty.
Any credibility the Nobel Peace Prize committee may have had left, it lost yesterday. Awarding such a prestigious and lofty honor to a man who has accomplished NOTHING apart from execute a well- (community-) organized political campaign and make a few speeches that make some select Americans FINALLY proud of their country and a few foreigners feel good about America again, would be hysterically funny if it didn’t have such dire, bloody, tragic consequences. Barack Obama has completed less than one year of his term; the economy, unemployment and public finance are in a shambles not seen in at least 30 years, the Holocaust-denying Iranian regime is on the fast track to acquiring nuclear weapons, and the ‘good war’ in Afghanistan isn’t quite so good anymore, resulting in a blitzkrieg-fast renunciation of commitment to our allies.
From Detroit to Teheran and from California to Carracas, America is weaker than it has been in at least a decade, and that’s no small part of what the Nobel Committee must be cheering. Horray for the not-Bush! There will be a nasty wake-up call for these cheerleaders and the rest of the peace-loving world when the consequences of that weakness play out.
You have got to be kidding! Even if the man is destined to be worthy of the honor, let him actually accomplish something before awarding the prize. Has the Committee no shame? Has there ever been a more nakedly partisan political award by a supposedly objective, non-partisan organization? The actual effect of President Obama’s policies on world peace cannot, will not be conclusively known for at least months, more likely years. Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and I join Democrats, liberals and socialists in hoping and praying that the next years will see a reduction in human suffering, war, disease and oppression throughout the world. But to declare it to be so because we wish it so is precisely the kind of mass intoxication that resulted in World War II, 9/11 and a hundred other calamities.
People, wake up, grow up and get serious. Peace is not some touchy-feely Starbucks pastry. It’s a serious imperative of civilization that must be DEFENDED, with courage, lives, and yes, guns, bullets, tanks, aircraft and bombs. Bozo the Clown has done more for world peace than ANY first-year US President, with the possible exception of Harry Truman.