The Peace (Keepers) Prize

The New York Times Company ^ | October 10, 2009 | THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[BellStar]

The Nobel committee did President Obama no favors by prematurely awarding him its peace prize. As he himself acknowledged, he has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award — and it dismays me that the most important prize in the world has been devalued in this way.

It is not the president’s fault, though, that the Europeans are so relieved at his style of leadership, in contrast to that of his predecessor, that they want to do all they can to validate and encourage it. I thought the president showed great grace in accepting the prize not for himself but “as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

All that said, I hope Mr. Obama will take this instinct a step further when he travels to Oslo on Dec. 10 for the peace prize ceremony. Here is the speech I hope he will give:

“Let me begin by thanking the Nobel committee for awarding me this prize, the highest award to which any statesman can aspire. As I said on the day it was announced, ‘I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.’ Therefore, upon reflection, I cannot accept this award on my behalf at all.

“But I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century — the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

[BellStar]

Now we agree on something sir!

[hinckley buzzard]

Now we agree on something sir!

Speak for yourself sucker. I'd agree with the turd-boy IF he had not insulted the veterans of VietNam and Korea by OMITTING THEM. You can call this liberal a**hole "sir" if you want to, but you won't be speaking for me.

[BellStar]

I am an Army Brat who had the privilege of being raised by my Father who saw action at the Battle of the Bulge in 44 (Christmas). Was in Korea a brief time and Viet Nam a brief time (Biological Warfare specialist/Teacher) dad retired in 69 . My Cold Warrior father is now deceased . His bride, my mom is very much alive and has much to say about Obama. None of which I can print here.

I married a Marine Pilot.

That said. I hope his slight was not deliberate I apologize to you and my Marine Pilot for missing that fact.

[MamaDearest]

.... it dismays me that the most important prize in the world has been devalued in this way.

The writer was not aware Al Gore was a previous recipient????????

[Peacekeeper357]

I did not authorize this prize award.

[lentulusgracchus]

The writer was not aware Al Gore was a previous recipient????????

Well, too, they had previously co-awarded Henry Kissinger, a warfighter, and Le Duc Tho of the North Vietnamese Politburo, which had actually started the war. That was a totally inappropriate award: Le Duc Tho was a bad joke, and even Kissinger's award was inappropriate. For one thing, as a warfighter and policy architect of the massacres of Chilean and Indonesian Communists, he was an inappropriate recipient per se, but by analogy with the situation in which the Nobel Committee had awarded the Peace Prize to Theodore Roosevelt (iirc, please correct me), they had given the award to the middleman, rather than to the belligerents. There was no broker or middleman in Paris between the Communists and the anti-Communists.

The Nobel Committee had also soiled itself when it awarded its prize to Yassir Arafat, Rigoberta Menchu, and Jimmy Carter (the latter not for his work on the Middle East, but just as a shot at George W. Bush).

[Vanders9]

If, as Freddie Mercury of Queen famously said, “fat-bottomed girls make the rocking world go round”, then isn’t it about time that the Democrat party received a Nobel Prize for its contributions to astrophysics?

Cue pictures...

[norwaypinesavage]

"Let me begin by thanking the Nobel committee for awarding me this prize, the highest award to which any statesman can aspire."

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is selected by only five liberal politicians who are elected by the liberal Norwegian Parliament. It has been devalued to worthless status after it was granted to worthless recipients like Yasser Arafat, Al Gore, Jimmah Carter, and others. There are hundreds of millions of thinking people in the world who consider the prize to be garbage. 1.4 million dollars of garbage is still garbage.