As much of a proponent of the EU as I normally am...

The cynical side of me wonders at a European-based entity awarding the Peace Prize to, well, Europe on the whole...and I wonder if it's perhaps politically-motivated (well, to be realistic, the Nobel Prizes almost always are) concerning the fragile socio-economic nature of the EU at the moment in areas (Greece, Spain, and Turkey all leap to mind.)

NATO? Are you kidding?

NATO is the biggest source of war & instability in the world.

If it were honest, it'd give the prize to Russia & China virtually every year.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/scarjo_popcorn.gif

Hey Putin, how's life?

As (apparently) a Noble Prize joint winner (I assume my cheque's in the post ;) ) I feel I have the authority to say what bollocks the whole system is. I used to have a deep respect for the peace. A respect that gave the benefit of the doubt to some more questionable choices... A respect that faded significantly when they gave it to Obama before he even did anything, and a respect that has now become contempt.

Honestly, the Noble Peace Prize now ranks below Time Man of the Year as something for me to dream of getting. Hell, it now ranks below the Blue Peter Badge!

Really.

China and Russia.

What, Iran and North Korea just didn't make the cut for you?

Granted, there are worse countries than Russia right now...China possibly being one of them (though I know you'd beg to differ despite the one-child policy and the news of violent evictions and a staggering restriction on human rights and freedom of speech as well as Internet access and censorship in that country) but...really?

You'd give the peace prize to China and Russia, when the former...well, all I said and more, far more (see: North Korea...though you like the Kims as well, never mind their "Death to America" chants and the disgusting 1984-type government regime that's in place and so many defectors telling how awful it was and, oh yes, the Kims essentially allowing so much of their population to starve by the millions while bragging they can hit the US with a nuclear missile, yes, clearly this is a state we should all back) and the latter...

Really, the role Russia's played in Syria, with Assad and everything...

THEY deserve the peace prize?

(Fortress Door is munching that popcorn right now...) ;)

And...forget China, Russia, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the other terror groups in the Middle East, the infighting all across Africa, the drug cartels in South America, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Yemen and the other Arab Spring countries gone awry at the moment...and I can go on and on...

No, NATO is the biggest source for war and instability?

If you want to kick Turkey around for a while I'm OK with that, it's a sad relic of our Cold War reliance on the nation's strategic position contra Russia and it's position now in relation to Middle Eastern airspace that it's even IN NATO...and despicable that the US hasn't made it acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, so I'm by no means saying NATO is without fault or that I wouldn't like to see some of it's members (again, Turkey chief among them) rightly smacked around in the international arena for its perversity...

But even as much as you hate capitalism and I suppose the West, Putin (I don't know if you DO hate the West for sure, but in constantly opposing the US + allies while supporting the former communist bloc, China, and North Korea, I have to suppose you're none to fond of it to say the least) even YOU have to admit...

The terror groups in the Middle East, Iran, North Korea's missile posturing...

NONE of those exceed whatever it is you despise about the US, UK, and other allies in NATO?



I'm sorry, but while I'll likely regret it--

1. Justify saying NATO is "the biggest source of war & instability in the world" and thus bigger than all those other states and terror groups I mentioned (and I'll even say Israel, as while I support the nation overall, I cannot deny that it's policies in Gaza are not at all to be looked on favorably at the moment, and right or wrong it's certainly been a site and source of plenty of instability in that region, provoked or no)

and

2. WHY, please, PLEASE why...why China and Russia, the former a nation that severely limits human rights and a nation where we likely could not even have the freedom to have such a cordial internet chat as this, what with its high degree of censorship and repeated human rights issues...and Russia, with your namesake back in and mass public unrest and unhappiness with that decision, to say nothing of Russia's own limiting of freedoms (the case of its imprisoning those punk rockers being just one small example) as well as its obstructive role in the entire Syrian conflict...

Why do THEY deserve Nobel PEACE Prizes, Putin?

@ Obiwan, Turkey isnt past of the EU.

@ Redhouse, why do you think the NATO should earn the award more?

Further, maybe the timing of the award is a little bit spurious, because of the EU debt crisis and stuff, but the EU HAS made a very big difference in the current peacefullness of Europe. The competition and power struggles between those nations has been changed from an armed one to one in the European Councill. And the economic, social and cultural ties has made the participating nations so intertwined and caused so much mutual dependencies, it makes war impossible for at least the next decades.

@Octavious:

It's a committee that snubbed so many great authors in the Literature department as well...it's all political...oh well...

So I agree, though I must now ask out of my own ignorance what a Blue Peter Badge is, as I'm aware it's a show, but that's it...? :p

I think it is clear that the Italy who doesn't attack Austria deserves the prize

Cuba and Switerzland are my second choices.

Actually, Mexico is pretty cool to...

Given his refusal to participate in any form of warfare and his insistence on resolving all dispute by civilized debate I nominate, for webdip Nobel Peace laureate...

Putin33!

Come collect your prize Putin! I'm going to make you filthy rich you red rebel you!

Why Russia and China, because NATO would be bombing some country every single year if they got their way, but they are reluctant to do so without UN approval. China single handedly has prevented I don't know many warmongering escapades by the US administration in years past from developing into full blown war. Russia has done a great deal to prevent regional war in Iran & Syria, but especially Iran.

I know you're an imperialist and frown on these kinds of things, but Russia & China are what is keeping the peace in the world. NATO is busy arming terrorists and waiting for the greenlight to bomb somebody.

I like the Committee's reasoning on the decision...

For fostering democracy and peace for 6 decades...

So the EU gets the award for Europe not blowing itself to bits for a few decades?

As much as I probably have far too much of a pro-Euro streak (especially for someone who's never been and is unlikely to get to go anytime soon, given how poor the financial future is from where I'm sitting)...

Come on...

If we're going by areas of the world that have fostered peace and gone forever without blowing itself to bits...

How about giving it to CANADA!

THEY haven't ever started blowing themselves up...
THEY'RE a pretty damn diplomatic nation...

And hell, who doesn't love Canada, they're the Stereotypical Nice People of the World!

(Except when Russia or the US and CAN play each other in Winter Olympics or World Cup hockey.)

:p

Specifically, China has prevented war mongering by the US on the Korean peninsula from developing into full blown war. The six party talks were their idea and theyre the ones who made them work.

Canada? Canada is embarrassing themselves these days diplomatically. They were blocked from a security council seat for the first time ever. C'mon Obi, try reading the news for once.

That's right obiwan, the Nobel Committee acknowledges our capacity to not start suicidal wars and gives us a million of our own euros to reward us for the achievement! Let's send it all to grape farmers in France! =)

Putin, I really am curious to know if you hate everything western. The closest I have seen you say anything not bad about anything in the West (minus Cuba)

Blue Peter is one of those British shows that have been going on for ever. It's a kid's show that encourages you to make your own toys, go out and do fun things, and do good deeds (recycling aluminium cans was a big thing when I watched it). If you sent them something good they'd award you with a Blue Peter Badge (which would give you cheap entrance into a load of attractions). If you did something truly exceptional you'd get a fabled Gold Blue Peter Badge.

I should point out that I have always ranked the gold BP badge as better than a Noble Prize ;)

"Why Russia and China, because NATO would be bombing some country every single year if they got their way, but they are reluctant to do so without UN approval. China single handedly has prevented I don't know many warmongering escapades by the US administration in years past from developing into full blown war. Russia has done a great deal to prevent regional war in Iran & Syria, but especially Iran."

1. Russia and China have also prevented GOOD measures in those states (again, Russia's obstruction with Syria, and if Russia and China stopped backing North Korea so fervently, that UN pressure you value so much could allow for talks to end its nuclear program, REAL talks, with China and Russia enforcing it, but they refuse to do so and as a result we have a more dangerous and militarized North Korea than ever while Syria bleeds...oh, yes, shining examples of China and Russia's "peace" in the world!)

2. You're also giving full UN Security Council (I'm assuming that's what you're going by since you're citing their veto power/power to block measures) to those two, when France and temporary members have also "held the US in check," and even outside the SC, plenty of other nations have done this that DON'T have Russia and China's appalling human rights violations, so why not give the Nobel Prizes to those nations?

3. You haven't answered on those human rights violations, by the way, so to underscore that point, PLEASE address them...you can't say they don't exist when censorship, violence in forced evictions, and the one-child policy are all public knowledge, to touch at the tip of the iceberg with regards to China, and while you may like Putin, much of Russia does not, many of his critics have been forcibly silenced, and again, I cite that punk rock group's arrest as just one of MANY examples of freedom of speech being quelled in Russia...please, address these...

4. I again bring up North Korea, as they BOTH support The Little Orwellian Nightmare State That Could...Russo/Chinese backing has destroyed the possibility of successful nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea, while it starves its people and brags about its ambitions of bombing the West Coast of the US (where *I* live, so not something I'd favor, now matter how much trash I may talk about LA at times) so...how is this peaceful? How does allowing for any state, and especially one like North Korea, to have nuclear weapons foster world peace?

5. Finally, while I am not at all a fan of all US intervention, I'm not going to detract from all of it, either...we've done some bad and and some good, it's a mixed bag and more complex than you give credit for, Putin.

Giving the award to Russia and China would be like giving Oppenheimer a lifetime achievement award for keeping the peace.

>drops "NATO" at thread start
>Putin matches bizarreness of statement by picking the evil C&R duo
>site rage.
-My work is done here.

"I know you're an imperialist and frown on these kinds of things, but Russia & China are what is keeping the peace in the world. NATO is busy arming terrorists and waiting for the greenlight to bomb somebody."

I'm not imperialist just because I support the US, UK, and Israel...?

I'm elitist, yes, but not imperialist, I'm not saying that the imperial policies of those states in the past were GOOD...

Likewise, I don't think all intervention by those states today have been bad; I oppose Iraq (or to be more accurate, I oppose the fact we occupied Iraq that long, I have no qualms about our taking out the genocidal murderer of the Kurds, Saddam, but our staying in Iraq was a disaster for this country and to do so like cowboys to the rest of the world a diplomatic nightmare) but I also think that US intervention in other areas in FAR more limited capacities has had a more positive effect.

"Canada? Canada is embarrassing themselves these days diplomatically. They were blocked from a security council seat for the first time ever. C'mon Obi, try reading the news for once."

Just saying, if the standard for a Nobel Prize these days is "Don' blow yourself or others up and be nice to folks," the Canadians...well, come on, Putin, they're just too damn nice! They're almost WICKEDLY nice...perhaps Canada is plotting some massive imperialist Maple Leaf scheme to take over the world in hockey puck grenades and syrup...mmm...

@redhouse:

"That's right obiwan, the Nobel Committee acknowledges our capacity to not start suicidal wars and gives us a million of our own euros to reward us for the achievement! Let's send it all to grape farmers in France! =)"

LOL...

"Blue Peter is one of those British shows that have been going on for ever. It's a kid's show that encourages you to make your own toys, go out and do fun things, and do good deeds (recycling aluminium cans was a big thing when I watched it). If you sent them something good they'd award you with a Blue Peter Badge (which would give you cheap entrance into a load of attractions). If you did something truly exceptional you'd get a fabled Gold Blue Peter Badge."

I see...

Well, much as I'm not a kids' person...that DOES sound like quite an achievement...

And with no Pulitzer winners and the Nobel Prize going to the EU for not blowing itself up...yeah, I'd have to say that sounds like a pretty prestigious award by comparison as well! :)

I think the idea behind this award is that the European Union should be the blueprint for a future government of the world. And I don't think they're wrong. As usual, Europe does something and everyone else waits for a hundred years to see if it works because they don't have the brains, creativity or culture to realize it's the future. The EU is clumsy, it has a million faults, but it's the future. The bright future, I dare say.

Hey Zmaj how've you been?

Hey redhouse! Fucked any children recently?

None I didn't ferociously kill afterward no, how 'bout yourself?

wait, if redhouse didn't fuck me, who did?

was that you Zmaj?

Ahh, the EU. Providing new and exciting jobs for bureaucrats everywhere. Managing to achieve all of the inefficiencies of a single giant nation but so few of the benefits. No supposedly democratic organisation has done more to trample on the idea of one man, one vote.

If that's the future you can keep it.

Why NATO?

Because I believe that the combination of democracy and capitalism, with all of its flaws, many of which blatantly obvious and in dire need of a cure, is the best political system in the world. This can be seen from the immense output in terms of culture, economy and science by the nations within the NATO alliance.

I believe it does an excellent job at protecting the free world, without being aggressive to countries that aren't ready for it. Also, I believe the times that NATO was used for missions that didn't directly concern the security of NATO countries, it did a much better job it than the US in similar adventures which I believe goes too far when it intervenes in other nations' business, or the UN, which I believe whenever it chooses to intervene, does not go far enough.

I am happy and grateful to live in a part of the world that encloses hundreds of millions of people that have lived in peace and harmony for almost 70 years.

The European Union, on the other hand, is a weak institution, that claims way too much jurisdiction in areas it should have no business in, and way too little in areas that it should, and is suffering from a severe case of imperial overstretch. Also, it has been attributed the function of "keeping the peace in Europe" for the last years, while really, it was the presence of American military bases and NATO and not our own political adventures that kept us safe and free.

I nominate NATO for Nobel Peace Prize and the Silver Blue Peter Badge.