5 ms·
Isn't the Nobel Peace Prize widely considered a joke to begin with?
by quickly 10y ago
Isn't the Nobel Peace Prize widely considered a joke to begin with?
- magico 10y agoNo
- MrFeynmannsJoke 10y agoAt least since 2009 when Obama Receiver it.
- ghostDancer 10y agoKissinger was before that and much worse than Obama.
- runholm 10y agoWhat was the problem with awarding it to Kissinger? Generally curious? I don't recall the details, but as far as I understood he pretty much laid down the foundation to end the Vietnam war.
- tomhoward 10y agoHere's one take on it: https://theintercept.com/2016/02/12/henry-kissingers-war-crimes-are-central-to-the-divide-between-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders/ https://theintercept.com/2016/02/12/henry-kissingers-war-cri...
- ceejayoz 10y agoCarpet bombings of Laos, helping Nixon interfere with negotiations in Paris to end the war, looking the other way while Pakistan massacred people in Bangladesh, supporting Pinochet, etc.
- ptaipale 10y agoThat was past; then came the deal to an armistice to end the Vietnam War (though then after the armistice NVA and VC continued the war and South Vietnam collapsed). The point of that prize was not that there had been war, it was that the parties had signed to end hostilities. In 2009, the peace prize really was quite strange in my opinion: Obama had achieved rather little except winning an election campaign (becoming the U.S. president the same year) on promises that undoubtedly sounded good to the Committee (but which later on were not kept very well or quickly).
- ceejayoz 10y agoKissinger was directly and personally responsible for lengthening and intensifying the conflict. Giving him credit for ending it later on seems odd. I'm a big Obama fan, but I'm with you on the 2009 prize.
- ptaipale 10y agoThere are other examples where the Nobel prize has been given to someone who previously intensified the conflict, but then worked for peace. Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in 1978, for instance.
- ghostDancer 10y agoThe Obama prize was like giving a gold medal to a runner just because it will run some races and he tells you he wants to win . Nobody could understand it , it's still a mystery the reason behind it.
- runholm 10y agoHe was awarded the price for his use of diplomacy instead of provoking more new wars. There was a lot of controversy regarding the decision, but to say that it lost all credibility is simply not true.