Bush, Pope Among Nobel Peace Nominees

Newsday ^ | 2/13/04

[areafiftyone]

OSLO, Norway -- The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush, jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and the pope.

Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said the preliminary list includes 129 individuals and 44 organizations, and is likely to be expanded when awards committee members forward their own nominations at their first meeting of the year on March 2.

Last year, there were 165 nominations, and the award went to lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win. The committee accepts proposals postmarked by Feb. 1.

"This year, there are not that many new names," Lundestad said. "But we see that as the prize becomes more global, the nominations also become more global." The five-member Norwegian awards committee keeps the names of nominees secret for 50 years, releasing only the number with no other information.

However, those nominating candidates often announce their choices, this year including Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for protecting world peace; the European Union; French President Jacques Chirac; former Czech President Vaclav Havel; Pope John Paul II; former U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei; Vanunu, for exposing his country's nuclear weapons program; Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya; and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and former Sen. Sam Nunn for their Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which is intended to dismantle nuclear weapons left over from the Soviet Union..

[Onelifetogive]

The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee reported a record 173 nominations for 2004, with known candidates including President Bush,...

Arafat, Carter, etc. have these prizes...I sure hope Bush doesn't win one.

[beckysueb]

What in the world is that French turd doing on the list?!? I nominated President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. Hope one of them wins but I can't see it.

[beckysueb]

I figure the french creme puff or Blix. I want Bush to win cause Clinton would KILL for this award.

[areafiftyone]

Are you kidding. They would never give the prize to Bush or Blair. They hate Bush and Blair. This whole Nobel Prize is rigged! I would be shocked if they did.

[areafiftyone]

Hope one of them wins but I can't see it.

I hate to say it but neither can I.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

We really need a Ronald Wilson Reagan Peace Through Strength Award.

[areafiftyone]

Wow that's a good one.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

I first came up with the idea a few months ago and I've been toying with it for a while.

[lilylangtree]

Considering some of the previous winners like araRATfink and Carter, I'm not impressed with the Nobel. However, considering that clintoon tried 6 times to get the Nobel and never did, I'm hoping that Bush gets it.

[areafiftyone]

I would love for both Bush and Blair to get it. That would kill all the anti-war democreeps.

[Terry Mross]

Talk about gettin' Clinton's goat! Whew! Would he self destruct if Bush won?

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Nobel Peace Price for W? This has got to be a joke.

You are right. Ronald Reagan WOULD be an excellent candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize - if the prize had anything to do with promoting world peace.

Because of Regan's policies:

- The cold war was ended without blowing up the world.
- The nations of Eastern Europe got their independence.
- The Pol Pot regime in Cambodia was brought down.
- The dictatorship in Grenada was deposed and democracy restored.
- The civil war in Nicaragua was brought to a peaceful end and the Sandinista dictatorship was deposed in a free election.
- Bloody civil wars were peacefully resolved in El Salvador and Guatemala.

All in all, about half a billion people freed from war and tyranny. Not a bad record for a man of peace.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

I would say that he should share it with Pope John-Paul and Lady Thatcher

[Onelifetogive]

Clinton would KILL for this award.

Literally...

[Onelifetogive]

Peace Through Strength Award

That is redundant....

[WinOne4TheGipper]

My suggestion was a new award named in his honor.