Nobel Peace Prize for virtual reality

Did we win in Iraq?

Is the Darfur conflict over?

Have West Africa's child soldiers, Somalia's pirates, or the Atomic Ayatollahs decided to come clean and yield to the moral suasion of U.S. President Barack Obama? Given that the American President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, one could politely ask; for what?

George Orwell would have smirked.

The Nobel Committee in Norway awarded Obama the Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Call it a Virtual Peace, but clearly the distinguished Nobel committee delegates have been impressed by the President's rhetoric and tone.

But neither aspirations for peace, nor all the good intentions in the world, turn swords into plowshares unless of course there is a specific result from his policies. That's where diplomacy, backed by a credible military deterrent, enters the game.

Commenting on the surprise award, veteran CBS news commentator Bob Schieffer stated, “the prize is awarded for results, not for aspirations.”

In another sense, it like students aspiring to get an A grade on an exam, but forgetting that it takes work and study to actually earn the grade.

Somehow I don't believe for a moment that Obama was courting the Nobel committee or even expecting the Peace Prize.

Talk about audacity of hope!

To be sure sitting American Presidents have won the Nobel; Republican Teddy Roosevelt for mediating in ending the Russo/Japanese war in 1905, Democrat Woodrow Wilson in 1919 for founding the League of Nations, and Democrat Jimmy Carter in 2002, long after having exited office, for having mediated or meddled in many things.

But in each of those cases there was a cause and effect.

Longstanding and seemingly intractable problems were put on the path to peace by specific and focused efforts. One could make a good case for former President Bill Clinton winning a Nobel for Northern Ireland for example.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg won the 1929 Nobel for being instrumental in forging the famous Kellogg Briand Pact (1928) which outlawed war “as an instrument of national policy.”

The pact earned near gushing approval and enthusiasm and was soon ratified by all the major powers.

The virtual reality had ensured peace, but Japan, a signatory to the Pact, soon attacked Chinese Manchuria in 1931, and Nazi Germany invaded Poland a decade later.

Somehow the merits of moral suasion were lost on the dictators of the 1930s.

Certainly there have been many Nobel prizes which were richly justified ; Lech Walesa of Poland, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and Anwar Sadat and Menacham Begin as well as Tibet's Dalai Lama.

Former Secretary of State George Marshall, the man behind the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild post-war Europe, won the prize in 1953

The U.N. has had its share of the prize too with the U.N. Peacekeeping institution earning the 1988 Nobel, and the United Nations and Secretary General Kofi Annan sharing the prize in 2001.

While many Nobel Prizes spark controversy, they equally represent a call to action.

Here President Obama has met his likely match and what could turn out to be a double-edged sword. We can aspire to rid the world of nuclear weapons be they in North Korea or Iran.

We can beg the thugs ruling Sudan to allow peace in Darfur. We can try to shame Somali pirates and Afghan Taliban to come to the Nobel altar of Peace.

But this vision, based on the outstretched hand of hope, hardly impresses the dictators and represents virtual reality, not real peace.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues.

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