What can one say about the imbecilic decision to award the Nobel Peace prize to Barak Obama?
On the one had one should not be surprised. After all this is the same crowd that awarded the prize to Yasser Arafat, one of the world's most accomplished and cynical murderers. Or to Jimmy Carter, perhaps the world's most influential anti-Semite. Yet, it strikes me there is something different about this one – it is more than just the usual hypocrisy and naiveté. This time there is an added dose of arrogance and smugness.
What the Nobel committee seems to be saying this time around is:
"Here is a prize for thinking and talking like us. We know you have not really achieved any of your stated aims for international peace, but you have acknowledged that our approach is right, that America has been mistaken and that you intend to make amends. And for this, for your enlightened contrition, we are going to give you this important prize. We hope it will help you achieve your noble (no pun intended) aims."
Most people realize that this award is so stupid that it is an embarrassment – and this includes many Obama supporters. A sample from the European press suggests however that the Europeans are not at all embarrassed. They think it fitting to reward Obama in a very public way for becoming more like them, for validating their worldview – including the denial of American exceptionalism. And they see nothing wrong in using this august prize as a political instrument, an instrument of propaganda to try and bolster a political agenda of which they approve. Their arrogance defies imagination.
The committee praised Mr. Obama for believing that "dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts" and also for believing in the seriousness of climate change! (I am reminded of Ayan Hirsi Ali's good friend Teo Van Gogh who was brutally stabbed to death for making a movie about the subjugation of Muslim women. While his crazed fanatical attacker was stabbing him Van Gogh turned to him and said, "Can't we talk about this?" Maybe he should have been awarded a posthumous peace prize, were there such a thing.)
The Nobel citation declares further that Mr. Obama's "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." As today's WSJ editorial notes, where is this majority? Most of the world lives in poverty under the rule of brutal dictatorships. The Western Europeans are in danger of being overrun by these cultures but for the power and vigilance of the United States of America whom they love to despise. They are so arrogant that they don't even realize they are not in the majority.
The unfortunate part of it is that the Obamananiacs have convinced many Americans that the Europeans are right. And when we become like Europe who will watch our back?
2 comments:
I agree with a lot of what you say. The Nobel Prize was clearly very premature and, at this stage, unearned. But what I find remarkable is the undercurrent of criticism of Obama himself, as if he is somehow responsible for the decision – which came as big a surprise to him as to everyone else.
Also your comment about Jimmy Carter being an anti-semite – is this because be has championed the Palestinian cause? If so count me as an anti-semite, too, because I am appalled about what is going on in Israel, and concerned about the evaporationof justice and morality in the country. I have often been described as a self-hating Jew. Well, all I can say is that there are a lot of Jews who I hate, but I am not one of them!
True, Obama is not responsible for the folly of his admirers in Europe. I do not criticize him for that - there is plenty else to criticize him for - some of which can be found on this blog site going right back to his presidential campaign.
As for Jimmy Carter being an anti-Semite - there is plenty evidence for this. You can start with Alan Dershowitz's chapter in "The Case Against Israel's enemies."
I am not sure what Palestinian cause you are championing. If it is one that says that Israel is responsible for their plight and is guilty all manner of immorality in this regard, then I think you are sadly misinformed and misguided. As I have also explained in my blog, it doesn't take knowing too much history to realize that Israel did not create the Palestinian problem and cannot solve it. The Arab political leadership created it and has no interest in solving it. So, if you are championing the cause of the Palestinians in appealing to the Arab world to help their brethren in Palestine and to stop treating them as dispensible political pawns, then I am with you.
PL.
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