In 2009, the Nobel Peace Prize committee let “Bush derangement syndrome” get the best of them. They hated President Bush so much that they awarded the Peace Prize to our new President Obama:
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.
It was a silly statement in 2009 because Mr. Obama had been president for a few months when they made the decision. It’s like saying that a rookie has redefined the game because he told a reporter in spring training that he’d take his team to a World Series title.
It is hilarious now, specially with the benefit of eight years of governing.
Over time, some Committee members have expressed some second thoughts. After all, President Obama has not really ended wars, unless you believe that the Iraq pullout gave us peace in the Middle East.
The Committee may have some real second thoughts when they read this:
The U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs last year, 3,027 more than 2015.According to an analysis of Defense Department data from the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, the majority of the bombs were dropped in Iraq and Syria.The U.S. leads an international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in both countries and has carried out air operations in attempt to reduce the area controlled by the terrorist organization.Nearly the same amount of bombs were dropped in Syria (12,192) and Iraq (12,095) last year.
To be fair, I supported a firm position against ISIS or the creation of no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians from Assad’s savage regime. Unfortunately, President Obama never understood that dropping bombs is a component of a policy and not the sole activity. In the end, President Obama’s weak foreign policy dropped bombs but did not contribute to making anything better in the region.
In the meantime, the Committee now has 27,000 reasons to understand just how silly their 2009 decision was.
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