The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to so many weirdos. At best it's a prize given to people who are already famous, for saying the right thing, like e.g. Linus Pauling. He won a legitimate Nobel Prize in Chemistry, then afterwards got a Peace Prize for being against nukes while famous. Otherwise it's given to suitably leftish, international organizations like the UNHCR or the Red Cross. It's also given to people who are victims and accomplish nothing. Liu Xiaobo got one for opposing the Chinese government and ending up like people tend to when they do that. Malala Yousafzai got one for getting shot by the Taliban. And then it's given to outright warmongers. Yasser Arafat got one for going to war against Israel and then mellowing out a bit later in his life. And just last year they gave one to the prime minister of Ethiopia, who has been stoking ethnic conflict in order to cement his power (he could be a Democrat, he'd fit right in).
Obama being given one for being black is outright one of the better ones (even if he did later become the first Peace Prize laureate to bomb another Peace Prize laureate), and it's not like this is new either. Woodrow Wilson was given one, the man who started the tradition of American involvement in overseas wars. Giving Peace Prizes semi-randomly to American presidents is also a tradition almost as old as the Nobel Prize itself. The Peace Prize is nothing but politics and hasn't ever been anything else. (This goes for Literature too. It's being part of the right team that matters. It's really only the Physics, Chemistry and Medicine prizes that have any merit at all.)
As for Trump, at least he hasn't started a new war. Amazingly, he's the first US president since Carter not to start a new war. That makes him a better Peace Prize nominee than many of them, though this bar is low indeed. And concerning Israel, I don't think there'll be peace until one of the two groups has been removed from the area, but again, trying and failing to broker a peace is also a good way to get a Peace Prize.
Yes, I'd like Trump to be given a Peace Prize, to own the libs if nothing else, but it's an almost meaningless prize, given basically for being part of the in-crowd (which is why Trump won't get it), and not only has it become this, looking at the list of laureates, it seems it has never really been much more. Abolishing it would be the honest thing to do. (I would say, get rid of the Literature prize while you're at it, which has the same problems, and perhaps Economics too.)
If anything this seems to be the peace prize slowly approaching its intended purpose.
With Obama it was for the promotion of peace in the middle east - though they jumped the gun and he never actually followed through. I mean yeah, we all know they actually nominated him for being black, but the stated reason was more a case of "but he hasn't actually done anything yet".
With Trump it'll be for promoting peace between Israel and the surrounding Islamic states - some of which have actually released statements to that effect. How much it will actually end up accomplishing remains to be seen, but it's more than Obama ever ended up doing (unless you count that terrible deal with Iran).
They're not entirely wrong here, I think.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to so many weirdos. At best it's a prize given to people who are already famous, for saying the right thing, like e.g. Linus Pauling. He won a legitimate Nobel Prize in Chemistry, then afterwards got a Peace Prize for being against nukes while famous. Otherwise it's given to suitably leftish, international organizations like the UNHCR or the Red Cross. It's also given to people who are victims and accomplish nothing. Liu Xiaobo got one for opposing the Chinese government and ending up like people tend to when they do that. Malala Yousafzai got one for getting shot by the Taliban. And then it's given to outright warmongers. Yasser Arafat got one for going to war against Israel and then mellowing out a bit later in his life. And just last year they gave one to the prime minister of Ethiopia, who has been stoking ethnic conflict in order to cement his power (he could be a Democrat, he'd fit right in).
Obama being given one for being black is outright one of the better ones (even if he did later become the first Peace Prize laureate to bomb another Peace Prize laureate), and it's not like this is new either. Woodrow Wilson was given one, the man who started the tradition of American involvement in overseas wars. Giving Peace Prizes semi-randomly to American presidents is also a tradition almost as old as the Nobel Prize itself. The Peace Prize is nothing but politics and hasn't ever been anything else. (This goes for Literature too. It's being part of the right team that matters. It's really only the Physics, Chemistry and Medicine prizes that have any merit at all.)
As for Trump, at least he hasn't started a new war. Amazingly, he's the first US president since Carter not to start a new war. That makes him a better Peace Prize nominee than many of them, though this bar is low indeed. And concerning Israel, I don't think there'll be peace until one of the two groups has been removed from the area, but again, trying and failing to broker a peace is also a good way to get a Peace Prize.
Yes, I'd like Trump to be given a Peace Prize, to own the libs if nothing else, but it's an almost meaningless prize, given basically for being part of the in-crowd (which is why Trump won't get it), and not only has it become this, looking at the list of laureates, it seems it has never really been much more. Abolishing it would be the honest thing to do. (I would say, get rid of the Literature prize while you're at it, which has the same problems, and perhaps Economics too.)
If anything this seems to be the peace prize slowly approaching its intended purpose.
With Obama it was for the promotion of peace in the middle east - though they jumped the gun and he never actually followed through. I mean yeah, we all know they actually nominated him for being black, but the stated reason was more a case of "but he hasn't actually done anything yet".
With Trump it'll be for promoting peace between Israel and the surrounding Islamic states - some of which have actually released statements to that effect. How much it will actually end up accomplishing remains to be seen, but it's more than Obama ever ended up doing (unless you count that terrible deal with Iran).