SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO WONDER: Are prizes worth the paper on which they are printed?
For example: A former U.S. president receives the Nobel Peace Prize early in his term, according to the Nobel committee (https://tinyurl.com/y5wb4uf7) “"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
Mind, (citing the Nobel award, ibid.) “Barack H. Obama, the 44th President of the United States, had been in power for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Among the reasons it gave, the Nobel Committee lauded Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". Emphasis was also given to his support – in word and deed - for the vision of a world free from nuclear weapons.
- Rhetorical Question: Did he accomplish any of those things during eight years in office?
For example: Another U.S. president managed to forge peace agreements between
- Israel and
* United Arab Emirates
* Bahrain
* Sudan
Between Kosovo and Serbia
Reduced tensions between North Korea and the world.
Reduced contributions to organizations that promote hatred and terrorism.
Never mind that the previous administration — led by a Nobel Peace Prize winner —
- * Failed to manage a peace agreement with ANY antagonists
* Exacerbated conflicts
* Refused to deal with North Korea despite its on-going threats to world peace
* Bolstered Iran’s capability to make a nuclear weapon, ignoring Iran’s threats to all nations in the Middle East
* Encouraged and provided financial support to terrorists (PLO/PFLP, Hamas/Islamic Jihad) by keeping U.S. taxpayer aid flowing to the terrorist “leadership.”
FOR THE RECORD, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize went to the UN's World Food Program.
According to Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/yy6fjhwf),
- The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization, the largest one focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals. Founded in 1961, it is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries. As of 2019, it served 97 million people in 88 countries, the largest since 2012, with two-thirds of its activities conducted in conflict zones.
Most assuredly the UN’s program — largely funded by U.S. taxpayers under the current administration — is a worthwhile function.
But compared to peace making? Compared to reducing the chance that people will be murdered in the name of religion or race or any other excuse?
As my Second Born, a computer wizard, would opine: “That doesn’t compute.”
Not the first Nobel embarrassment
According to both the BBC (https://tinyurl.com/yarclup4) and the New York Post (https://tinyurl.com/y264flh7),
- Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Obama.
Instead, the decision was met with criticism in the US. Many argued he had not had any impact worthy of the award.
Lundestad, writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, said even Obama himself had been surprised.
"Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he says. "In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for".
Some Obama’s advisers decided the honor could not be refused. But as ridicule rained down on the committee for handing a peacemaker’s award to a man who was ordering drone strikes on civilians overseas, the White House grew increasingly hesitant, dithering for weeks over how much of the traditional three-day awards gala he would attend.
Bottom line: the Prize committee had “high hopes” that failed to develop.
The Prize committee also gave the 1994 Peace Prize jointly to Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It ignored Wm. Jefferson Clinton (Dem) who brokered the deal.
- Rhetorical Question: How did that work out?
Is the Prize committee showing bias?
Democrat presidents get it.
Republican presidents don’t get it.
President Nixon, who opened China and got the U.S. out of Vietnam was nominated, but Henry Kissinger got the award. Only the Prize committee knows why a subordinate (Kissinger) won the prize while the boss (Nixon) was ignored. (Kissinger did deserve a Frequent Flier award.)
According to ThoughtCo. (https://tinyurl.com/y6gjgk9z) , three presidents and one vice-president were honored by the Prize committee:
- Theodore Roosevelt (GOP), who was in office from 1901-09, was awarded the prize in 1906 "for his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case.”
Woodrow Wilson (Dem), who was in office from 1913-21, was awarded the prize in 1919 for founding the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations.
Jimmy Carter (Dem), who served one term from 1977 to 1981, was awarded the prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
Vice President Al Gore (Dem) won the prize in 2007 for his work in researching and disseminating information about climate change.
Consider for a moment how the UN, nee’ League of Nations, has prevented conflicts; the “international conflicts” avoided by Carter, and the great progress made combating climate change during Democrat administrations.
Teddy (Roosevelt) won the prize for “successful mediation” of one war (that the Japanese actually won with their surprise attack on Port Arthur — a tactic they would use again on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.)
In comparison, President Trump managed to arrange peace or “normalization” agreements between multiple countries in the Middle East and in Europe. To paraphrase the “Soup nazi” from Seinfeld (https://tinyurl.com/zwblsg9), “No prize for you (Trump).”
- Here’s a thought: In how many peace — or even “non-aggression” — treaties has Joe Biden been involved in his 47 years in Washington, including eight as Prize winner Obama’s vice president?
Republican Ronald Reagan did not garner the Peace prize, but Communist Mikhail Gorbachev won the honor for “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community.” (https://tinyurl.com/yxsgab25)
(https://tinyurl.com/y6yqdj43)
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