POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
It’s not been a pretty history for the Peace Prize.
At least, Obama gave the world something to celebrate and have some hope about.
Does anyone remember that he replaced the most ignorant and vicious man ever to hold the office? The world was morally exhausted after eight years of that cretin.
A man who killed maybe a million people?
The Peace Prize in general has an odd history and is surely the most ambiguous and inconsistent of prizes.
I think Al Gore’s prize was more than a little odd.
Well, then there’s the just plain shameful horrors of the prize.
Henry Kissinger, certified war criminal?
Menachim Begin, old Irgun terrorist?
Shimon Peres, political father of Israel’s nuclear weapons?
Theodore Roosevelt, imperialist extraordinary?
A few awards in recent decades meant something for sure, as that to Doctors without Borders or that to Jimmy Carter.
But, in general, it’s not a proud history.
