Tom Lehrer went back to his academic day job full-time when the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Henry Kissenger. He said that the world was now beyond satire. In that vein, Neil Clark writes:
Ahtisaari- the charming individual who threatened the carpet bombing of Belgrade in 1999- and the killing of a half a million civilians in the former Yugoslavia was the Finnish politician who last week- to a chorus of approval in the western media- was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Not only was Ahtisaari on the side of the warmongers in 1999, he also lined up alongside the Shock and Awe brigade four years later. He strongly defended the US-led aggression against Iraq, saying that he would have supported the military action regardless of the WMD arguments: "Since I know that about a million people have been killed by the government of Iraq, I do not need much those weapons of mass destruction".
By honouring a warmonger like Ahtisaari- a man who despite acting as an UN special envoy has shown contempt for the UN Charter- and international law- by backing the blatantly illegal wars of aggression against Yugoslavia and Iraq- the Nobel Committee have lost all credibility.
A Nobel Peace prize for Martii Ahtisaari? What will the Nobel Committee come up with next year I wonder? - a Peace Prize for Tony Blair?
Careful, Neil. If the wrong person reads that...
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By honouring a warmonger like Ahtisaari- a man who despite acting as an UN special envoy has shown contempt for the UN Charter- and international law- by backing the blatantly illegal wars of aggression against Yugoslavia and Iraq- the Nobel Committee have lost all credibility.
ReplyDeleteThat clearly isn't true, though, is it? Because (a) as a matter of fact, plenty of people do still respect it; and (b) the people who don't respect it haven't done so since Kissinger won, so this award is irrelevant to them.
"as a matter of fact, plenty of people do still respect it"
ReplyDeleteWho?
And why?
The thing about Lehrer is an urban legend - he'd already retired by the time Kissinger got the prize
ReplyDeleteThat's not what he says.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's exactly what he says. Read this interview with him here:
ReplyDelete"Q: I'd long heard that you stopped performing as a form of protest, because Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.
A: I don't know how that got started. I've said that political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize. For one thing, I quit long before that happened, so historically it doesn't make any sense.