[libertarianPA]

Of course! It's so simple! Why didn't we think of it before? If there was no poverty, everything would be fine. Certainly religious or cultural ideologies wouldn't get in the way of world harmony.

Quick! Someone throw money at the poor people! Peace at last!!!

[2banana]

Interesting - Haiti has never been in a war yet is the poorest country in the western hemisphere...

[Mike Darancette]

Why were the worst wars started by the richest nations?

[snarks_when_bored]

And somebody send bin Laden a few more million...that'll help for sure...

[Always Right]

Unless of course their religion demands that they kill everyone....

[ikka]

Yes of course the Saudis that were involved in 9/11 were all dirt poor farmers that couldn't even afford a goat...

[marvlus]

Wait! I thought for sure Cindy Sheehan was going to win this most coveted prize!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Normally people aren't in the mood to fight when they are out scrounging for something to eat. Hungry people just don't fight well.

[avg_freeper]

Actually it links Capitalism with a reduction in poverty.

[BenLurkin]

Hard to believe anyone really believes this: "... the causes of war, such as hunger and poverty..."

Anyway -- if it is poverty you want to eliminate then Capitalism is the tried and true way to eliminate it. Every other approach has only made poverty worse.

[dfwgator]

Gee, I guess that explains why most of the 911 Hijackers came from rich Saudi families.

[The_Reader_David]

The 'poverty causes war' analysis is bullshit, but it's nice they decided to honor one of the people who is implementing small-scale capitalism as the way to overcome poverty.

[antiRepublicrat]

Wow, it only took them this long to recognize this guy. I believe it was he that P.J. O'Rourke was praising as a poverty solution in a book from the 90s (IIRC, All the Trouble in the World ), as opposed to the failed government schemes, like "Let's depend on and market jute even though the market has shrunk dramatically due to synthetics."

[lepton]

Attack the causes of poverty and you remove the roots of conflict

Historically, it is when improvements of conditions occur that many poor peoples become aggressive. As an example, the French Revolution occurred on the heels of the most widespread increase in wealth among the commonfolk in centuries.

[Maceman]

These clowns have it exactly backwards. They confuse cause and effect, and continue to demonstrate the utter idiotic worthlessness of the Nobel Peace Prize.

[longtermmemmory]

I think the AFP and the Nobel committee missed the point. They are using capitalism to help people help themselves. The micro loans are not free, the bank is making a profit, the borrowers are making a profit.

[GSlob]

Actually, there is a body of learned opinion holding that most of the cultural, social, and economical development occurs in the lands either being ravaged by war [but not too much, of course], or at least under the war conditions.[see Charles Murray book "Human accomplishment"]. The examples most frequently cited are Renaissance Italy and Holland Gold Age. Of course, there are other contributory factors of the civilizational nature as well.

[TChris]

Ahhh! So that's why those middle-class Arabs flew airplanes full of innocent people into the World Trade Center! They were too poor!

Umm.... Oops.

[TASMANIANRED]

Poverty is not the cause of war but frequently war is the cause of poverty.

[LexBaird]

A glance at recent Peace Prize winners reveals a shift in emphasis in the thinking of the secretive five-member committee away from the classic role of peacemaker, as it has honoured people working in the fields of human rights and the environment.

So what is new? They gave one to Albert Schweitzer back in '52 for being a jungle doctor.

[Old Professer]

History is demarcated by war, nobody ever asked:
"What did you do in the Peace, Daddy?"