Alternate headline: Nobel Committee Highlights Its Descent Into Irrelevance.
As Donald Trump succeeds in apparently ending yet another war, the Nobel committee decided to award its Peace Prize to someone who hasn’t yet done any peacemaking — again, as we’ll note in a moment. Maria Corina Machado has done a remarkable job unifying opposition to Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, but the Peace Prize?
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting democracy and fighting dictatorship in the country.
Announcing the prize, Nobel Committee Chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes described Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace…who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
As the leader of the democracy movement opposing the regime of President Nicolás Maduro, Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a movement that was once divided—an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government.
This is no knock on Ms. Machado, who faces an uphill battle against a relentless Leftist dictator. In some ways, it’s remarkable that the Nobel committee sees Maduro as the villain in this situation, given its usual crushes on leftist leaders. Machado deserves more support from the international community, but the point of the Nobel Peace Prize is to promote peace, or so they claim.
Say, speaking of crushes on leftist leaders, does anyone remember how the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave its 2009 award to Barack Obama, whose sole contribution to peace at that time had been to ignore the pro-democracy forces in Tehran? By this time sixteen years ago, Obama had done nothing for peace except look good while getting elected, and would go on to create the vacuum in which ISIS would arise in western Iraq, attempt to boost the mullahs in Iran, allow Bashar al-Assad to use chemical weapons on his own people, and help decapitate the Qaddafi government in Libya and touch off a migrant crisis in Europe.
So what reasons did the Nobel committee give for handing the award to Obama less than nine months after his election? The vibes, man, and climate change, something something mumble mumble:
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.
The Nobel committee could not point to one specific accomplishment toward peace. They gave Obama the award for not being George W. Bush, and not being John McCain. They dressed up their nakedly political decision with ambiguous weasel words and acted as though no American had ever employed multilateral diplomacy before The Arrival Of The One.
In contrast, here’s the track record of peace for Donald Trump in the first eight months of his presidency:
- Armenia and Azerbaijan – The two former Soviet republics and Trump signed a peace agreement at the White House on Aug. 8, ending a decades-long war. The leaders of the countries gave Trump ample praise for his efforts at the ceremony.
- Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda – Trump announced a treaty between the African nations in a June 20 social media post, crediting Secretary of State Marco Rubio for helping to bring them together.
- Iran and Israel – Trump announced on June 23 a ceasefire between the two countries after the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
- India and Pakistan – Trump announced the neighboring countries, both armed with nuclear weapons, had reached a ceasefire in May with U.S.-led talks after an intensifying military confrontation. However, India did not credit the U.S. with brokering the halt in fighting.
- Cambodia and Thailand – Leaders of the two countries agreed to a ceasefire on July 28 after five deadly days of fighting, Reuters reported. Trump urged them to negotiate a ceasefire or else trade deals with the governments would stall.
The committee had already deliberated before the announcement of Trump’s cease-fire agreement for Gaza, but come on, man. With the track record above and the success of the negotiations (which had been underway for a few days already), shouldn’t that have warranted a catch-up meeting to reconsider? Do Nobel Committee members not have phones, or do they communicate only via carrier pigeon?
Honestly, it matters little what the Cool Kids of the Nobel Quad Clique choose to honor. A just peace is its own reward, after all, and will speak more loudly through history than constipated Nordic snobs. This is still useful as a demonstration as to how thoroughly corrupt these institutions have become, politically and morally. It’s of a piece with the silence of Hollywood celebrities who apparently don’t like the idea of a ceasefire if it means Jews get to survive in their own ancestral homeland, and that Donald Trump had any positive contribution to peace.
We don’t have to make these people look ridiculous and hypocritical. This award shows they do a fine job of that all on their own.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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