Posted on 03/02/2004 7:32:01 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Pope John Paul II are among the 144 individuals and 50 organizations nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Today was the deadline for nominations. The winner of the $1.3 million award will be announced in mid-October. The prize has lost some of its luster since disastrous ex-president Jimmy Carter was handed it, and some of this year's nominees have a Carteresque flair: French President Jacques Chirac, the European Union and, reportedly, International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist group. Others include: Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, and Israeli technician Mordechai Vanunu, jailed for exposing his country's nuclear weapons program. Sen. Richard Lugar and former Sen. Sam Nunn were nominated for their program to dismantle nuclear weapons in Russia.
How did he help us in N Korea? As an ex-president, who the hell does he think he is to be sharing peanuts with world dictators? Which of these "sit-downs" has lead to freedom/human rights?
He won it by negotiating to make US taxpayers fork over $2 billion to pay for a North Korea nuclear plant designed to make bombs to kill Americans. The Koreans had said it was for a nuclear energy plant. Two weeks after Carter won the award, they announced they lied and for 4 years had been making nukes. Like most liberals, Carter feels that but hugging terrorists and dictators and bashing the US he's entitled to greatness.
Because one of the main reasons listed for giving it to Carter was his negotiations with North Korea in alleviating a nuclear threat. Twelve days after the presentation of the award, North Korea announced they had gone ahead and were developing nuclear weapons anyway. If the award were given out a month later, Carter wouldn't have received it.
Yes there have been worse winners, but 2002 was the year one of the selection committee admitted their choice was not worthy, but just chosen to make a poltical anti-Bush statement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.