A Norwegian politician's nomination of US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn outright criticism and ridicule. For people who pathologically dislike Trump, such a move is beyond comprehension.
Some have gone as far as to say that the Nobel Prize should be scrapped if Trump is awarded. That's just visceral hatred bereft of balanced judgment and historical context.
Your world isn't ending if Trump wins the Nobel Peace Prize. It is definitely not worse than conferring the biggest peace prize to former US President Barack Obama.
It isn't worse than NOT giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Mahatma Gandhi, the biggest prophet of peace who walked the Earth in the last century.
Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who nominated Trump, said he deserves the prize for brokering peace between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. "For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other peace prize nominees," he said.
You Tried it With Obama, But What Did You Get?
Give it to him folks, what he has achieved in four years. You tried it with Obama in 2009, barely a few months after being elected as US president. The Nobel was awarded to Obama so early in his presidency in anticipation of the great things he was 'destined' to do. That misplaced optimism was a aberration from the hallowed Nobel principles.
The Nobel Committee, much as the rest of the world, thought Obama would wind down America's wars, resolve a multitude of conflicts and unify the world. Instead, he started more wars, expanded the existing military campaigns and left the office unable to broker any single peace deal of any merit.
Under his watch, the world's most hideous terror outfit, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), took shape. His interventions in the Middle East fueled the rise of the hydra-headed monster of Islamic terrorism across the world.
Obama Bombed 7 Countries
He bombed as many as seven countries to secure America's, and the world's, security, as if it were, but the US ended up with more security challenges than ever before. Obama became the darling of the peceniks when he started his campaign sating he was against 'dumb wars'. But he ended up as the only US president to preside over global wars for the complete duration of his two terms.
The Libyan Debacle
It was okay if he was merely a failed peace broker. He was a dilettante, armed with the biggest weapons and supreme power. We saw that in Libya. He bombed Libya while he was himself unconvinced about such a move. Then, when Gaddafi fell, he withdrew, leaving the field to the terror groups. In the process, the US faced the biggest humiliation when Ansar al Sharia burned down its diplomatic compound and killed the US ambassador.
Misreading Isis Threat
We saw again the failure of vision under Obama in 2014, in Iraq and Syria. Obama would melt down if he watched again what he told the New Yorker in 2014, referring to the 'minor threat' of Isis. He played down the threat of the most dastardly terror group in the making and refused to draw parallels with Al Qaeda. "If a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms, that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant," he told the New Yorker.
The world thanks the Russians under Vladimir Putin, not the Americans under Obama, for finally decimating the Islamic terror group that held great sway in Iraq and Syria and spawned a wave of maniacal atrocities across the world fueled by the Caliphate fantasies. One should also thank Donald Trump for NOT putting the American ego ahead of wisdom. Had he pitched in against the Russians in Syria and continued fighting Assad, the ISIS would not have been defeated.
Why would I go on, and on, against Obama while professing to explain why Trump deserves his Nobel prize?
Trump Isn't Perfect, But Judge Him by Facts
Trump isn't a peacenik by demeanour; he isn't around seeking your benign approval for being a dove. He is far from perfect as a man, and as a statesman. But when you judge him, facts ought to have a place.
The Middle East deal between Israel and the UAE is real, promising and longstanding. More Gulf monarchies will jump on the peace wagon with Israel, and that's going to to make the world a better place. Trump's predecessors could not achieve anything like it in the last 40 years. Nothing real was achieved in the Middle East ever since the Camp David treaty.
Restraint Over Iran
Trump didn't go to war with Iran, despite extreme provocations. If Trump had given his brain away to the military-industrial complex, another war in the middle East would have been underway now. But Trump exhibited statesmanlike restraint when Iran seized oil tankers of US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE and shot down US drones. In another era, this would have been ample fodder for a war.
Talking to North Korea, Winding Down in Iraq and Afghanistan
Trump did show the gumption to deal with the unhinged lot in North Korea. For whatever little the final outcome is worth, the move was an open-ended act of offering peace and co-existence. Listening to Kim Jong Un across a table is worth it, if you seriously care for the intricate security cross-currents in Asia.
Taking on Military-Industrial Complex
He's winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the US announced a further troop cut just this week. He's probably the only President after Dwight Eisenhover to decry the military-industrial complex openly. "I'm not saying the military's in love with me, the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs & make the planes & make everything else stay happy," he said.
Critics were quick to latch on to this and turn the rhetoric against him, pointing out that this is merely lip service. Yet, Trump had the gumption to say something that cheeses off the Washington insider.
Well, yeah, you could go on.
Finally, don't rush to say that the Nobel nomination is a far right conspiracy to give Trump some brownie points as he heads into the last mile of a tough election. The nomination is for 2021, a good thirteen months from now.
