2009: The Nobel Hope-'n'-Hype Prize

Wow. I think I was as shocked in my pre-coffee stupor this morning as Barack Obama must have been to discover that he'd won the million-+ dollar Nobel Peace Prize for nothing more than running a campaign on deception, cleverly labeled 'Hope'. Surely, thunk I to myself, they must be kidding! Since when did Alfred Nobel authorize his endowed prizes for great contributions in science, literature and politics to people who haven't done a damned thing other than maintain the bad old status quo?

I mean, it's not like the U.S. has turned Iraq over to the puppet government we installed there after invading the country for lies in the last administration, as if Saddam Hussein (who got hanged years ago) was responsible for 9-11 or was any threat after years of embargo that had hundreds of thousands of Iraqis starving after Daddy's bullshit mercenary war in the early '90s. Last I checked, which was this morning, ridiculously overstretched U.S. troops and well-paid mercenaries were still there and still dying.

Nor is it like the U.S. isn't still negotiating with warlords and drug kingpins in Afghanistan, or that the puppet government we installed there is in charge of anything other than the pallets of cash passed out to those drug lords. And yes, our troops and mercenaries are still dying every day there too. Why, last I checked - again this morning - Obama was still trying to get a troop surge there, despite not having any troops to work with after 8 years of decimating our vaunted "All-Volunteer" force.

Oh... and civilians by the multi-thousands in both countries are still being slaughtered wholesale, while our overstretched troops play the old game of "take this hill today, abandon it to the enemy tomorrow" that lost us Korea and Vietnam. Then there's Pakistan, which Obama is bombing regularly with drones and slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians we're not even at war with. And of course there's Iran, which Obama is threatening daily with carpet-nukes because he doesn't like their diminutive not-really leader's rhetoric as our troops surround his nation. Oh, and then there's Columbia, and Obama's troop build-up there to ostensibly take on the drug cartels he's supporting out in the open in Opium-Land.

The whole world is topsy-turvy crazy, and the Nobel committee is leading the pack. Wow. Just... wow.

Wake me up when Barack Obama does anything real in this world to end and/or prevent war. Until then, I've just got to consider this as being just what it is. The Nobel Hope-Against-Hope Prize.