Trump is on Course to Win a Noble Peace Prize

The hypocrisy of the Nobel Committee comes to the fore.

No. As unbelievable as it sounds, I am not making this up.

America is sinking — and fast. The West Coast is on fire, hundreds of thousands have lost their lives to the coronavirus and violence is on the rise. The man who the country holds responsible has been nominated to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

And truth be told, I’m not surprised. No, not because he deserves it. But the Nobel committee messed up before too. It seems simply being president of the United States is good enough to win.

Barack Obama — The first mistake

Let me get straight to it — how can someone with the resume of Barack Obama be awarded a Peace Prize?

Afghanistan, Libya, Syria — were they destroyed for nothing? Did the hundreds of thousands of innocents who died not matter? Does the fact that Libya is now a failed state not matter? Or that, in his last year in office alone, Obama dropped 26,171 bombs not matter?

The message from the Nobel Committee was clear — American presidents could now start wars abroad, decimate those countries, leave them in ruin and then proceed to collect their medal.

Is this what ‘peace’ is?

You would think they learned their lesson

Let’s backtrack for a second.

Why did Obama win? For his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.”

I’m flabbergasted.

If that doesn't say that the Committee was desperately trying to find a way to give him the award, I don't know what does.

And when I say Obama didn't deserve it, I’m not alone. Obama himself was surprised and almost didn't go to receive it. The Nobel Secretary himself regretted his decision.

You’d think they wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

But alas, here we are.

The Trumpster

By Obama’s standards, Trump may be a ‘peaceful’ guy. But perhaps that says more about Obama than it does about Trump. The truth is Trump is no better. He may have not set out to find a new country to destroy — yet — but a fair share of the destruction in Syria happened under his watch. And once he didn't want to take part anymore, he decided to leave. And it’s not like he did the honourable thing by getting it back on its feet before he did so. The state Syria was in at the time is evident in how Trump himself called it “sand and death.”

So, why has he been nominated?

For brokering a deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. But, like Obama’s nomination, it’s baloney.

The UAE and Israel are two countries that millions in the Muslim world believe to have been in bed together anyway. And it’s not just that.

Despite the deal, Israel is still relentlessly bombing Gaza, the UAE is happy for it to continue doing so and is backing Israel to annex the third holiest site in Islam. This deal isn’t a peace deal at all — it’s an attempt to legitimise the already illegal Israeli expansion and annexation of Palestinian lands.

And Trump? Where does he fit in?

Trump's contribution extends to no more than getting them to sign on it. So if he ends up winning the prize, it’ll only be because of who he is — the president of the United States — a man with an office with the required credibility to make it seem legitimate and get the job done.

A sprinkle of conspiracy

Why could possibly explain Obama’s win and Trump’s nomination? Why does the Nobel Committee seem hell-bent on honouring them?

There may be darker forces at play.

None of what’s happening can even remotely be defined as ‘peace.’ So, why? Why are these awards being handed out?

Perhaps the answer lies in the origins of the Nobel Committee itself.

Their inclination to hand out prizes to war-friendly presidents backing dubious peace deals may have something to do with the fact that Alfred Nobel, the man who started all this, was himself a manufacturer of explosives and the inventor of dynamite.

Doesn’t sound awfully peaceful to me — I wonder what those products are used for?

Oh — right, war.

And it doesn't stop there. In fact, it gets worse. In 1888, Alfred Nobel was labelled by the French press as “the merchant of death.”

The origins of the institution reek of hypocrisy.

But, all this was over a century ago — and I’m certainly not advocating that there’s an agenda at play here. But, still, it all does seem a bit superficial, doesn't it? I mean, these presidents have destroyed countries and the deals are phoney. None of what they’re doing amounts to ‘peace’ as you and I would describe it.

If Alfred Nobel’s ethos is still running through the institution today, this may explain why people like Obama and Trump are favoured. And if it is, we’re living in a much darker world than we thought.

Conclusion

The list of Nobel Peace Prize winners contains some illustrious names — Nelson Mandela, Doctors without Borders, the UN and the EU, just to name a few.

And when you do look through the list in its entirety, you can’t help but feel those people deserved it. Take Nadia Murad as an example.

Kidnapped and held hostage by ISIS for three months, she went on to build an organisation which was committed to “helping women and children victimized by genocide, mass atrocities, and human trafficking to heal and rebuild their lives and communities.”

She was awarded a Peace Prize for her “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

And other winners, like Mandela and Malala, don’t need any introductions.

The point I want to make is this: what about these people? What about their accomplishments? Conspiracies aside, doesn’t people like Obama winning and Trump being nominated for it amount to an insult to the efforts of those who truly deserved it?

What the Nobel Committee is doing is undermining the value of the award that’s used to acknowledge and reward the efforts of those who went the distance — who often put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others.

Some, like Malala, even took a bullet. These two U.S. presidents have done nothing but fire them.