Nobel / Noble Insights?

While much has been said about Barack Obama winning the Nobel peace prize, including becoming a punch line of many jokes, there is an important element that has generally been overlooked.

The Nobel committee lauded Obama for his commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and while most realize Obama doesn't have achievements worthy of the peace prize, I want to raise the issue that the Nobel committee, and Obama, are wrong to think that trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons will make the world a safer place.

In the 64 years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there have been no direct wars between the major powers. In the 75 year prior, there were two world wars that claimed tens of millions of lives, plus wars between Germany and France (1870), the United States and Spain (1898), and Russia and Japan (1905).

The stunning fact that the nuclear era has been free of war between the major powers isn't a mere coincidence. Instead, it is a function of the protection that the American nuclear umbrella provides to nations in Europe and Asia who are otherwise in close proximity to enemies (the Soviet Union and Europe and China and Japan / Korea) and that the consequence of war between the major powers would be so catastrophic.

It is true we stand at the precipice of rampant nuclear proliferation if we don't stop Iran's nuclear weapons programs. An Iranian nuclear arsenal will spur Arab nations to build nuclear weapons and raise the real specter of nuclear war involving Iran and Israel.

Unfortunately, it seems the only realistic to stop Iran's nuclear program is to destroy it militarily, which no doubt is the exact opposite of what the Nobel committee hopes to achieve with Obama's award.

The Norwegian leftists on the Nobel committee have gotten it exactly backwards: nuclear weapons in the hands of America and its allies have made the world more peaceful than it otherwise would have been, and a military attack is exactly what is needed to stop the disastrous consequences of Iran developing nuclear weapons.