Bush and Blair nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=2706011

 

Bush, Blair Nominated for Nobel Prize for Iraq War

Thu May 8, 2003 10:28 AM ET

By Alister Doyle

OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian parliamentarian nominated President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, praising them for winning the war in Iraq.

 

'Sometimes it's necessary to use a small and effective war to prevent a much more dangerous war in the future,' Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent in Norway's parliament, told Reuters.

 

'If nobody acted then Saddam Hussein could have produced weapons of mass destruction and, in five or 10 years, could have used them against Israel,' he said.

 

An award to Bush and Blair would be a U-turn after the Nobel Committee awarded the 2002 prize to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter last October. At the time, the committee chairman called it a kick in the shins to Bush's Iraq policies as Carter had been calling for a diplomatic solution.

 

Simonsen said the war had 'made it possible to create democracy and respect for human rights in a country which for so many years has been ruled by one of the worst dictators in modern times.'

 

However, Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Institute where the five-member committee meets, said Simonsen's proposal would have to wait for the 2004 award because the deadline for nominations for 2003 passed on February 1.

 

The secretive five-member committee names the annual winner in mid-October. More than 160 people and organizations have been nominated for the 2003 prize, including Pope John Paul, Irish rock star Bono and Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya.

 

'I'm not especially optimistic that Bush and Blair will win but I think it's worth a try,' Simonsen said. He said he would encourage like-minded parliamentarians in other countries to also nominate Bush and Blair.

 

Nobel committees have frequently honored the United Nations instead of unilateral action by member states. The United Nations did not give an explicit mandate for the war amid opposition from countries including France, Germany and Russia.

 

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize went to the United Nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

 

Thousands of people around the world, including members of national parliaments, professors of history, law and politics and former laureates can make nominations for the prize. The nomination process is secret, but people sometimes publicize their choice.

 

I actually don't have a problem with them being nominated, but I think that Peace prizes should only be handed out 5-10 years after the fact. Let the world see how things plays out.

[Guest NoCalMike]

I heard this on the news early today, and I thought it was a joke at first.

[Guest Anglesault]

Ah, why the hell not. Nothing else in the world is sane anyway

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Bush has no chance in hell to win the award.

[Guest RenegadeX28]

They already nominated them? They need to see how this pans out before doing this...

[Guest bob_barron]

Wasn't Bono also nominated?

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

There are a LOT of unlikely people nominated every year, this is no different. Like it says, 160 people, and the award isn't even presented until October.

[Guest Vyce]

Wasn't Bono also nominated?

Jesus tapdancin' Christ, if that goddamn Irishman wins the award over Bush, I will have to kill someone in cold blood. I'll kill The Edge, I swear I will. WITH MY TEETH. I gnaw the bastard's trachea out. It'll be a bloody fucking Sunday then, I tell you!

[Guest phoenixrising]

I'm actually rooting for Bush and Blair to win now just for the irony of giving a peace prize to leaders who had to fight a war.

 

Of course the irony of a peace prize named after the inventor of dynamite is amusing as well.

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

Wasn't Bono also nominated?

Jesus tapdancin' Christ, if that goddamn Irishman wins the award over Bush, I will have to kill someone in cold blood. I'll kill The Edge, I swear I will. WITH MY TEETH. I gnaw the bastard's trachea out. It'll be a bloody fucking Sunday then, I tell you!

Bono- campaigns to drop 3rd world debt.

Bush- starts illegal wars.

 

I know who I'd prefer to win.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Kudos to that Norway guy. I thought it was funny...

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I find this rather offensive. How dare anyone nominate my President for this farcical "peace" prize, now routinely handed out to terrorists, anti-Semites, tyrants, and professional appeasers? Let the Europeans keep their tarnished, quaint little prizes for themselves. Devoid of substance, courage, principles, vision, and accomplishment, they need all the ceremonious backpatting they can get.

 

Just sit back and let us drive, children. We'll get there soon, and then you can show us all your "Bestest Mommy in the World" crayon-drawing. I'm sure it's perfectly lovely.

 

feh.

Edited May 9, 2003 by Cancer Marney

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

Aww, you're so funny.

[Guest Midnight Express83]

Right now, if Bono wins it. I wouldn't have a problem with it because he does try to help the world with PEACEFUL acts, unlike starting war.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I agree. Bono is as much of an economic imbecile as the Pope, just as morally blind, and almost as unwarrantedly arrogant. His ideas are submoronic, asinine, and, if implemented, potentially deadly. He's caused incalculable harm and hysteria with his shameless self-promoting martyrdom, and it's entirely appropriate that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Guest EricMM]

I really don't think that the Nobel Peace Prize was designed for the kind of thing Bush did in the last year. I guess Blair can have it, but it just wouldn't ring true for me if Bush got a prize that is supposed to go to people who negotiate peace and stuff like that. Maybe if they make a Nobel "Kicking-Ass-For-Peace" Prize...

[Guest Kamui]

Because when you look at Iraqis crying over family member graves, yelling at American reporters, and stealing each other's paintings, you think "Man, that's peaceful!".

 

-Duo

[Guest Powerplay]

Because when you look at Iraqis crying over family member graves, yelling at American reporters, and stealing each other's paintings, you think "Man, that's peaceful!".

 

-Duo

And when I see the pictures of the cells thousands were held in, tortured in, and summarily executed in, the pain and suffering that has been put on the Iraqi people for a decade, and the oppulence of Saddam's palaces, I think "Jeez, maybe we didn't do the right thing..." Sorry, touchy subject with me.

 

And anyways, I'm guessing it's under the reasoning that he created a safer, and by that the possibility for a more peaceful world by doing what he did in Iraq. He stands a decent chance at winning, or at least he's probably in the top 10 with Blair.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Sometimes I can't believe people like Duo still exist. You'd have thought that when Baghdad fell, the scales on their eyes would likewise. This just proves that they weren't Saddam Hussein's "useful idiots" after all. Their constant carping isn't rooted in stupidity and ignorance; it's rooted in active malice and hatred for the United States.

 

Nice to know. <wanders off, humming unseasonable Christmas carols> La la la la la... checking it twice... mmm...

[Zorin Industries 0]

And anyways, I'm guessing it's under the reasoning that he created a safer, and by that the possibility for a more peaceful world by doing what he did in Iraq. He stands a decent chance at winning, or at least he's probably in the top 10 with Blair.

I say we wait at least 5 years before we can say that the war in Iraq has made the world a safer place. Situations in countries like this can get out of control real fast, so I think we should all wait and see before we can start saying if it was the right thing to do or not.

[Guest WhenDanSaysJump]

Despite my scepticism about pre-emptive strikes on Iraq, I'd sooner George Bush or Tony Blair win than FUCKING BONO.

 

Politicians always have an opportunity to justify their actions.

 

FUCKING BONO can never justify being FUCKING BONO. I don't care if he works tirelessly to eliminate debt in the developing world : he's FUCKING BONO.

[Guest Anglesault]

I thought Bono was dead

[Guest TheMikeSC]

I really don't think that the Nobel Peace Prize was designed for the kind of thing Bush did in the last year. I guess Blair can have it, but it just wouldn't ring true for me if Bush got a prize that is supposed to go to people who negotiate peace and stuff like that. Maybe if they make a Nobel "Kicking-Ass-For-Peace" Prize...

Maybe I'm nuts, but didn't the exceptionally inept Carter and the sub-human terrorist little monkey Arafat when this awad recently?

 

You know, I hold this Award about as highly as I hold the chairmanship of the U.N Human Rights Commission.

-=Mike

...Just because something SAYS "Peace" doesn't mean it gives a darn about peace

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

BTW guys, they have no hope of winning this thing. The deadline passed a few months ago.

 

Appearantly the Norway dude smelled a reelection if he hopped on the bandwagon or something.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

Huh, I though this award was only limited to communists and those voicing anti-semitism? Learn something new everyday....

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

A bit off-topic: have Bush sr. and Gourbachev ever been nominated for the NPP?

[Guest Crazy Dan]

Being that his only way to peace was through war, would be the main reason Bush should not be nominated. Maybe if he had helped spearhead a peace treaty or something like that, then I would have no problem with it.

 

And also, for every questionable choice for the award, I think that there have been quality winners like Mother Terresa and Martin Luther King. I agree that the award should be given 5-10 years after the fact, that way you can really see if a peace plan was effective.

 

Bono, love him or hate him, has done nothing that has pissed me off or anything. He has his things he believes in. But I have read that he has done a lot of charity work. He managed to get Jessie Helms to reevaluate his opinion on the AIDS crisis, and Helms was one of the most Bigoted-Backward thinking Senators that I have ever witnessed. I might not agree with all of Bono's politics, but such is life.

[Guest TheMikeSC]

A bit off-topic: have Bush sr. and Gourbachev ever been nominated for the NPP?

What did either man do to warrant consideration?

 

That Reagan or Thatcher never won it is a crime, though.

-=Mike

[Guest bob_barron]

I agree. Bono is as much of an economic imbecile as the Pope, just as morally blind, and almost as unwarrantedly arrogant. His ideas are submoronic, asinine, and, if implemented, potentially deadly. He's caused incalculable harm and hysteria with his shameless self-promoting martyrdom, and it's entirely appropriate that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

As a huge U2 fan I admit Bono is a fucking moron most of the time. I wish he would shut the fuck up and concentrate on music

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

What did either man do to warrant consideration?

 

That Reagan or Thatcher never won it is a crime, though.

-=Mike

Ended the Cold War, for starters. Bush also took out Noriega, and drove Hussein out of Kuwait.

 

Thatcher not winning it is a crime? I guess invading some stupid sheep colonies of the coast of Argentina is something worthy of the Nobel prize?