Guy W. Farmer: An embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize

Most of us, including President Obama, agree that he doesn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize," he said after learning that he had won the coveted award. In this case, Obama was

100 percent correct.

For starters, I can name four ex-presidents who deserve the award more than our current president: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush - Reagan for ending the Cold War, Bush Sr. and Clinton for their joint campaign to alleviate the pain and suffering of earthquake and tsunami victims in Southeast Asia, and Bush Jr. for his admirable efforts to combat AIDS in Africa. But the Nobel Peace Prize is liberal all the way, and no conservatives need apply.

In attempting to explain their inexplicable decision to honor a president who had been in office 11 days when they nominated him, the Nobel Committee said that Obama was chosen because he has spoken eloquently about world peace and advocated nuclear disarmament. Well, excuse me, but who isn't in favor of world peace and nuclear disarmament?

The fact is that Obama hasn't accomplished anything yet except to soften the tone of the international dialogue on those issues. He's already learned that it's easier to talk about the world the way he wishes it was, rather than to confront the painful realities of the complicated and dangerous world that we live in. Of course the real reason Obama was honored is that he's not George W. Bush.

Five European Socialists from Norway choose Nobel prize-winners, which almost makes me ashamed to admit that my maternal grandmother was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants. As most of you know, most Europeans would like the United States to be subservient to a form of world government modeled after the hopelessly bureaucratic European Union (EU), and to be subject to international law. That's never going to happen, however, and the Socialists will fail again in their latest clumsy attempt to influence U.S. foreign policy, specifically to convince Obama not to send more U.S. combat troops to Afghanistan.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman got it just right when he urged Obama to say the following in his acceptance speech at Oslo in December: "If you want to see the true essence of America, visit any U.S. military outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan ... (Therefore) I accept this peace prize on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. military - the world's most important peacekeepers." Amen!

• Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.