The Latest Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Some people are saying that the primary reason President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize is the fact that he’s not former President George Bush. But hey, a lot of people aren’t Mr. Bush either so where is their prize? Therefore, it must take a little more than that. A lot of people, including the President, are saying that he hasn’t done anything to warrant him winning the prize. But the reason people say he didn’t deserve to win ranges from a mixture of humility and genuine surprise to blatant derision and disgust.
The scorn and mockery against the decision by the Nobel committee reminds me very much of when Mr. Obama was running for President and people were making all kinds of excuses why Mr. Obama didn’t deserve to be the country’s chief executive. A lot of people said then that he hasn’t done anything to deserve the honor of the presidency. But nobody said anything similar about his opponents. What did then New York Senator Hillary Clinton do to deserve to be President? What did Arizona Senator John McCain do to deserve to be President? Many people were comparing Mr. Obama to then Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. What did Ms. Palin do to deserve to be a heart’s beat away from being the President?
According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the founder of the Nobel Prizes, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who, during the preceding year, did the most or the best work for peace between nations. And from that respect, I have to say that Mr. Obama has done very little to win. But I guess another fair question is who has done more? Maybe he did win because he was the one that became the symbol of the end of Mr. Bush’s reign of terror.
And if that’s the case, I nominate the Iraqi who threw his shoes at Mr. Bush’s head during a press conference. Muntadhar al-Zeidi’s astonishing act of defiance struck a chord with millions around the world. While many Iraqis were happy to follow script and honor the man most responsible for the devastation to their country as a man of peace, Mr. al-Zeidi had the courage to call a warmonger a warmonger.
Last year I heard Mr. Obama condone Israel’s tremendous devastation against the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip. Mr. Obama gave tacit approval to Israel’s bombing with United States sourced weapons and the use of white phosphorous on a civilian population when he said that if somebody was firing rockets at his girl’s bedroom he would do the same. Mr. Obama never tried to look at the situation from the Palestinian father’s point of view and say what he would do if somebody was trying to starve his daughter into some form of submission through blatant cultural disparity. So much for that idea of fostering peace between nations.
Whether or not the people who are responsible for deciding who’ll win the Nobel Peace Prize recognize Mr. Obama’s peace efforts as the most noteworthy is beside the point. Obviously they liked what they saw. Either the pickings were slim or, what is probably the more likely case and truly unfortunate, is the fact that those people who are responsible for the selection of this award really could care less about peace and only care about high profile popularity with little substance. The Nobel Peace Prize is little more than a popularity contest.
