Spite Prize

Incredible. Former President Jimmy Carter has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Timed right when Congress has voted to authorize an invasion of Iraq. As the people from the awarding committee make clear, it was a jab at President Bush, a “kick in the leg.”

Like he gives a rip.

Clearly, the criteria for the prize means endeavors to weaken American Security through the simultaneous hobbling of American power, demoralization of the American people’s confidence in our judgment, and the elevation of thug rulers as the ultimate arbiters of what is right. The principles of the award actually reward thugs who know how to play the system while saying the right soothing words that will forestall actual effective action.

If this award once had meaning, it no longer does. It rewards thugs who briefly decide not to be thugs and those who enable the thugs. The article notes that “Former President Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his ‘untiring effort’ to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and to advance democracy and human rights.” Tiresome is more like it. But really, cheap shot aside, for a man who has sucked up to every anti-American dictator on the globe, how can they honestly say he tries to advance democracy and human rights? He has praised murderers and when the people of Nicaragua turned out his beloved Sandinistas in a surprising election, he bemoaned the results! He preferred the communists to the non-communist victors. The contrast between Carter’s actions and the Nobel committee’s supposed reason for his victory are so mind boggling that I cannot comprehend the reasoning that led to his nomination, let alone his victory.

I hope that the next American who is so honored has the moral bearings to repudiate the award and decline it and the money that goes with it. It should have all the value of a “Viewers Choice” award, or perhaps slightly more than “Best of Show.”

Goodness gracious, the American XVIII Airborne Corps has done more to further world peace than Carter has done or ever will do, unless he sneaks in a revolver and assassinates one of the dictators he so frequently breaks bread with. So too has Congress done more, by essentially declaring war on Iraq.

So I say, we should embrace the kick in the leg that the Nobel people aimed at us. As a committee whose members value style over substance and who believe process is more important than results, the Nobel committee’s disdain for us is an honor.

And remember this: When Third Army marches on Baghdad and the Iraqi people are freed, that will be our kick in the shins to the Nobel people.