Special Report
The Reagan Prize
It’s time to create an international award for those who really bring peace.
It’s time for the Reagan Peace Prize.
Actually, it’s past time.
The Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama — for which he was nominated after barely two weeks in office — merely illustrates once again what has been apparent for not just the last few years but at least ninety years. The Nobel, the legacy of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, has become essentially worthless, a charade for left-wing Norwegian politicians to award like-minded liberals and liberalism under the guise that the award in some objective fashion determines an individual’s contributions to peace.
It’s easy to cite the current story. Obama, today, Al Gore yesterday, Jimmy Carter the day before that and surely Bill Clinton and Hillary some day to come. Reagan? Thatcher? Pope John Paul II? George W. Bush? Of course not.
But there’s more here, much more, which bespeaks the need for a Reagan Peace Prize.
The Nobel is not a fake — although it risks the charge in the sense that it presents itself as something it is not. Which is to say, an objective “but of course!” selection of an individual or group that has actually secured peace or at least advanced the cause. The Nobel is quite genuine — it is an award for leftists, for leftism and a leftist worldview of what peace is and how that peace is achieved. Not to be lost in the commotion here is that the decision to give the award to Obama was made by a group of Norwegian parliamentarians dominated by socialists.
The real question that needs to be asked is: Has the Nobel Peace Prize summoned forth those who have actually produced peace? Has the liberal-left wing view of how to achieve peace, as practically enacted by various Nobel Peace Prize winners, worked as advertised? The answer, overwhelmingly (they did manage a nod to Polish anti-Communist crusader Lech Walesa), is an embarrassingly emphatic no. Let’s take a look at some of the more stellar if now conveniently forgotten examples.
On September 1, 1939, World War II exploded , with the Germans invading Poland. The entire story of this global horror than unfolds over the course of the next six murderous years, the conclusion of which in turn bequeathed the next six decades of the nuclear-tipped Cold War.
Where were the Nobel Peace Prize winners chosen by Norwegians in the run-up to all of this? How did the world ever find itself in this ghastly situation in the first place if the Prize winners were so effective at what they were doing? Who were these recipients, what did they do that won them the prize — and most importantly, why didn’t they succeed?
Here are some of them.
• 1919, Woodrow Wilson — Wilson, the sitting President of the United States at the time he received his prize, is without doubt the most famous recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in the period that followed World War I and leading up to World War II. He won the prize, according to the Nobel Committee, for his work on the Treaty of Versailles, specifically including the League of Nations. What happened with all of this? The Treaty of Versailles failed, its signature accomplishment to blame World War I on the Germans (the so-called “War Guilt” clauses) and demand crippling financial reparations along with territorial concessions. The Treaty’s real success was in laying the groundwork for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Likewise the League of Nations proved an embarrassing failure, Wilson completely unable to negotiate America’s role in the League with the U.S. Senate.
Nobel Winner Failure: Wilson won his prize for a series of liberal foreign policies that directly set the world on the path to World War II and the Holocaust. Wilson’s peace strategy, rewarded by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, failed.
• 1925, Austen Chamberlain — Chamberlain was the British Foreign Secretary and half-brother to Neville Chamberlain, who years later would become the British Prime Minister famously advocating appeasement with Hitler. Austen Chamberlain won his Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating what is known to history as the Locarno Pact in 1925. The Locarno Pact, said Austen Chamberlain, was “the beginning, and not the end, of the noble work of appeasement in Europe.” The Nobel Prize Committee agreed, and awarded Chamberlain the Peace Prize for an agreement that opened the door
Nobel Winner Failure: The Locarno Pact, hailed by liberals of the day, caved in to the German demand to leave its eastern border open for revision, humiliating Poland and setting up an inevitable German invasion — which finally came in 1939. As Austen Chamberlain noted, it was a deliberate act of appeasement. Sniffed he: “No British government would ever risk the bones of a single British grenadier for the Polish corridor.” Chamberlain’s appeasement pushed Europe and the world further down the path to war. Austen Chamberlain’s worldview, rewarded enthusiastically by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, failed.
• 1929, Frank B. Kellogg — American Secretary of State for President Calvin Coolidge. Kellogg won the award for the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Briand was Aristide Briand, the French Foreign minister who had already won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1926 for his role in negotiating the Locarno Pact, the treaty that won the 1925 award for Austen Chamberlain. Kellogg-Briand, signed in 1928, was perhaps the most fatuous example of liberal foreign policy concepts abroad in the world. It banned war as “an instrument of national policy.” Sixty-three nations signed this treaty, including Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union along with the United States, Britain, and France.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
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petriearcpetrie| 10.13.09 @ 7:04AM
He did defeated the communist Soviet Union. Oh that is why because the people that vote for the Nobel are socialists communist themselves. The Nobel Peace prize has become meaningless, useless just like the United Nations.
Dazzle Smile Pro
Alan Brooks| 10.13.09 @ 7:56PM
I want a Silent Cal Prize for those who can provide am alternative to the chattering nabobs of motor-mouthism.
Alan Brooks| 10.13.09 @ 8:00PM
pardon, AN alternative.
the 'Silent Cal Coolidge Prize' for those exemplary citizens who keep their traps shut and don't say something foolish such as, say: Joe Wilson is a Racist, etc.
nysteeb| 10.14.09 @ 6:16AM
Afghanistan defeated the Soviet Union, not Ronald Reagan. The Terrorist-Appeasement award should be named after Reagan, though, because of the way he turned tail and ran from Lebanon after 220 Marines were murdered in their barracks in 1983. It was the first big victory for terrorists over America and led directly to 9-11.
martin j smith| 10.13.09 @ 7:33AM
It a great idea to develop an alternative prize to counter balance the Nobel prize. Here are some examples of reasons to award alternative prizes: Greatest Common Sense Leadership in Economics.
Most Forward looking Strategic Thinking in Foreign Policy. Freedom and Democracy prize in foreign affairs. The big cahuna would be: The Prize for the Greatest contributor to support of Human Rights as defined by our Bill of Rights.
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 8:32AM
Chernobyl toppled the USSR, not Reagan.
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 9:24AM
Right, and Three Mile Island Toppled Carter.
zman| 10.13.09 @ 10:22AM
Well my day is complete; a revisionist in our midst. Tell me, are you a public grade school indoctrinator?
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 10:38AM
Public grade school indoctrinator? Tell me more. Who pays their salaries? Are there private school indoctrinators? Do they get tenure?
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:36PM
And conservatives are toppling Liberals everywhere!
Alan Brooks| 10.13.09 @ 8:01PM
Bhophal toppled Indira Ghandi :)
Alan Brooks| 10.14.09 @ 12:29AM
Oops a daisy. it was Bhopal.
not 'Bhophal'.
Laura Denton| 10.13.09 @ 8:36PM
Hmmm . . . from your statement, you obviously are not a student of history. If you were, you would know that the USSR was toppled because of the financial hole it found itself in, trying to keep it's military on par with the United States. Chernobyl was a tragedy, no doubt. It had nothing to do with ending the Cold War.
Piffle| 10.14.09 @ 8:21AM
Laura, from your statement, you're obviously illogical. Chernobyl put the USSR in that financial hole.
David Pipkin | 10.13.09 @ 9:08AM
This is simply an awesome article. Kudos to Mr. Lord. I love the idea and every bit of its evolution, although the idea of members of Congress sitting on the committee gives me pause. There are many so-called Conservatives who believe that Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson would be suitable choices to sit on the board to award the Reagan Peace Prize. I would suggest that only US Congressmen and women who have won the award would then be allowed to a seat on the board, once they have proven their worthiness by actually winning it. I would be all for a board that consisted of The Heritage Foundation, along with certain media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Alan Keyes and Mark Steyn. Even Mr. Lord himself has proven his worthiness in writing this very article. I especially enjoyed the inescapable presentation of the facts of history, and the again-demonstrable failure of liberal foreign policy.
Mike| 10.13.09 @ 9:14AM
From the dictionary:
piffle:
–noun 1. nonsense, as trivial or senseless talk.
–verb (used without object) 2. to talk nonsense.
How appropriate.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 9:28AM
Thanks, Mike, for the support.
Red Phillips | 10.13.09 @ 9:22AM
The only American politician who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize is Ron Paul. Despite the hysteria of the interventionist pseudocons, Obama's foreign policy is Bush's third term. Liberal multilateral internationalist world policeman vs. "Conservative" unilateral internationalist world policeman. And the sad thing is that most of the interventionist faux cons don't realize that Obama is just the flip side of the same internationalist coin and you are getting all worked up over rhetorical style, not actual policy. You would all have a stroke if a real conservative non-interventionist policy was enacted.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:40PM
You'd make a great psychiatrist for the Left.
Paulitical Eunuch| 10.13.09 @ 5:56PM
Tell us what that might be?What sort of foreign policy would the be, eh?
Truth to Power| 10.13.09 @ 7:25PM
This can give Sasha Cohen another idea on how to make the silly Ron Paul look foolish again. He can tell Ron he is from Norway and that Ron is up for the Peace Prize. The article demonstrates how ridiculous this award has been and Red wants to give to his man. This kind of worship is painful to behold. Ron Paul is not as bad as his supporters.
dcd| 10.13.09 @ 10:19AM
Sounds like an excellent idea. The first step, of course, is to stop sitting around and whining that life isn't fair like conservatives usually do. Endow a prize.
Part of the Nobels strength is that it associates the more concrete achievements of the science (chemistry, physics, medicine). So not only make the prizes bigger than the Nobels but more specific (astrophysics, quantum physics, organic chemistry...) and recognize achievements towards peace (a rather fluffy term) such as anticorruption, free media, and sound fiscal policy.
But this like most of the conservative agenda is just so much smoke. Like raging at hollywood for not making the movies conservatives like (if you don't like it make something else).
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:42PM
How about we make it the New Age Troll Prize?
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 6:46PM
dcd,
Please excuse Margie she is the poster girl for ignorance and is probably the most deserving for the “Joe Biden, Foot in Mouth Commemorative Plaque” for stupidity as well. I swear, the hate and intolerance that radiates off that woman is palatable.
Nobel Laureates are responsible for such things as penicillin, most of the vaccinations that save our children from horrible diseases, as well as the chemo and radiation technologies that battle cancer. The human suffering and agony that has been eliminated through the generosity by these “socialists” by their endowments to researchers, doctors, and genuine soldiers of humanity is immeasurable.
The peace award that originates from Nobel’s Legacy is, in this instance as in instances in the past, of course suspect as to the recipient’s ideological position.
But that ideological slant goes with the territory, now if we want to create a “conservative” version of the Nobel Awards more power to you, but to make it anything comparable we have some pretty big shoes to fill and we are about a century of serving humanity behind.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 7:34PM
Excuse me Mr. Hauschild,
Liar!
I was responding to the post of the anti-conservative "dcd" above, as he or she would deserve the Nobel herself. It had nothing to do with your phony premise that you charge me with.
As for hate filled, I would say you fit that bill quite well in your response to me.
DaveS| 10.13.09 @ 11:11PM
You're right about the scientific awards. But surely even you realize that many Nobel awards are given out by legitimate Norwegian institutions and not by some gang of five of the Norwegian parliament - as the increasingly indefensible Peace Prize is.
kerry| 10.14.09 @ 11:21PM
aren't the last 19 or so Nobel's in health/research from either Americans or foreigners working on research in the U.S. of A???? I'm sorry, the U.S. has been leading the world in health care research for a while now. We have eased a lot of suffering in the world.
PT| 10.15.09 @ 2:44AM
I find it amusing you castigate Margie for ignorance and stupidity when you clearly do not the difference between palatable and palpable.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.09 @ 10:25AM
Well Red
I personally think Ron Paul is a whack job.
You and I both have benefitted wonderfully by
PAX AMERICANA during the last 65 years.
In fact, every American has benefitted greatly from Pax Americana.
Yes, we formed Pax Americana reluctantly during the closing days of World War II. Thank God for Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower in that regard.
Europe was destroyed, and we looked around at a crumbling of their colonial empires with all the associated power vacuums and chaos that HAD to be filled, or at least alleviated.
The only choice was to retreat again to fortress America, and let the true believer communists form Pax Internationale.
The ultimate termite mound world wide that might end the hopes for liberty or freedom for a whole world outside our borders.
We chose to shoulder our honestly felt responsibility to try to be a power for good in the world.
Yeah we stumbled around a lot, screwed up a lot, etc...BUT!
Overall, Pax Americana has been the most benign power the world has ever seen.
Who would Ron Paul have chosen to hand the pieces to at the end of WWII?
And whoever he handed the world to, what shape would the world be in today...Tovarich?
No, Ron is a nice whack job who forgets that there truly is a frightening world out there, and in some places they really do still kill you.... and eat you.
There is a Scripture that reads... "To whom much is given...much is required."
I spent a number of years in the third world. Ron's followers probably never have. I KNOW how much so many peoples look to us in hope for a better future. If nothing more than to think: "If they can do it maybe someday we can."
So
I sincerely thank every single man and woman in uniform and not that has gone out across the world on behalf of Pax Americana.
Who do you want to flavor the world's future?
Don't bog us down in mindless utopian trivia.
Somebody will have a "Pax". Who would you and Ron like it to be?
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 11:31AM
Why was Vietnam returned to colonial rule postwar, after Uncle Ho was promised sovereignty by the US for his help against the Japanese? Just a "stumble"?
Michael Tomlinson| 10.13.09 @ 12:03PM
Ask the Democrats it was their policy. Truman did what FDR promised and gave the country back to France. It seems that Democrats just have a problem with democracy.
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 12:43PM
I don't think Republicans raised any objections, but I made the point in response to Ken's post about how Pax Americana benefits everyone. No one saw any good from this one, even France.
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 12:19PM
Why yes, an excellent point, they've done much better as a Soviet colony than they ever did as a Chinese, French or American one.
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 12:51PM
Give your head a shake, Tim. Soviet?
Returning to the Reagan Prize idea..meh. Knock yourself out. Just don't expect everyone to genuflect at the mere mention of his name.
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 1:47PM
Yah, Soviet- the Empire that Reagan destroyed .
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:43PM
Piffle,
Do you piffle while you work?
Red Phillips | 10.13.09 @ 11:31AM
"I personally think Ron Paul is a whack job."
A "whack job?" Not misguided or wrong but a whack job? What is it about interventionist "conservatives" that makes them so quick to resort to invective? Especially invective that implies mental instability. You do realize the left does that to you, don't you? You should be ashamed of yourself.
Quick resort to invective reveals a lack of support for your position. Dissenters must be shouted down and demonized rather than reasoned with lest their heresy take root. (It already is, which is why the increased hystreria.)
I have called "conservative" interventionism counterproductive, unconstitutional, un-Christian, thoughtless, and many other things and I have even suggested that I find the war as first resort policy that you advocate disturbing especially for people who consider themselves Christians. But I have never suggested that the other side is full of "whack jobs" because it is a meaningless smear. It carries no information. It adds nothing to the debate. It is a smear for smear's sake. Perhaps you would like to retract it and label Paul and his foreign policy something that actually conveys some information. I'm sure you think it is naive. Try that.
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 11:51AM
"....war as first resort policy...." Red, you have no idea.
As we speak the HALO chutes have deployed above your domicile and the target acquisition lasers are dancing on your vehicle, rooftop, and lawn mower.
Your misrepresentations of Team America's foreign policy are about to cease, the death merchant Ken is in the team bus and his hand is reaching for the button.
victor| 10.13.09 @ 8:31PM
And you wanna talk about hate filled, Michael? What's the matter, your Liberaltarian interests been disturbed? Attacking the messenger are we? Thought that was against your rules of "civility." I notice you're not defending Ron Paul, but instead you are attacking those who "dare" criticize him.
Ken in People's Republic of MD| 10.13.09 @ 1:05PM
Ron Paul is a whack job.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:45PM
There he goes again (Red Phil)... psychoanalyzing us.
Michael Tomlinson| 10.13.09 @ 12:00PM
"Well Red: I personally think Ron Paul is a whack job. You and I both have benefitted wonderfully by PAX AMERICANA during the last 65 years. " Ken you nailed Paul, but he is also the King of Earmarks -- a real porker despite all his hollow rhetoric.
Ron Kessler's article on Newsmax about the Nobel "Piss" prize is spot on. George W. Bush in fighting AIDS and starvation in Africa along with the American taxpayers have done more for world peace or humanitarian outreach than all previous winners combined.
Frankly, who cares what 5 Euro-trash women think anyway. By awarding the "Piss" prize to Obama they focused a spotlight on his failed Presidency and its failed foreign policy that is making the world more dangerous. Considering how badly he is screwing up our economy and thus the worlds he should have gotten the prize for economics too.
Red Phillips | 10.13.09 @ 12:23PM
MT, will you at least be intellectually honest and admit that the interventionist foreign policy you support is much closer to Obama's foreign policy than it is to a foreign policy of non-intervention? A straight forward yes or no answer without evasion would be appreciated.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:48PM
I can't honestly intellectually say that I believe you are being intellectually honest. So now what?
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 8:36PM
Oh dear Mr. Tomlinson, I am going to have to pass the award presented to me by Mr. Hauschild (above), on to you, as you are exhibiting similar symptons of "hate" and "ignorance" and "stupidity," by speaking thusly. How darest thou?
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 10.13.09 @ 10:36AM
It’s a great idea (The Regan Prize), but to do the award right, you’ve got to do a reverse prize each year too. The Non-Freedom award of the year, and just because he’s the oldest one that’s still kicking at the moment, that first Non-Freedom award would have to go to Fidel Castro.
Then maybe next year it could be, Chevez, or Ahmadinejad or that Ass from North Korea.
Then of course, you can add the Infamous ones of days gone by, as automatic inductions each year, like Hitler, Stalin, or S.L. Stoddard (Ha, Ha), and whoever is the current President of Norway (just to let them know, this is an F-U to them and their ridiculous Peace Prize that never brings peace). But you probably don’t want to do those last two, because they miss my point completely. I was going off track there, like I sometimes end up doing.
So now? Where do we send the money?
Michael L. Hauschild| 10.13.09 @ 11:31AM
If you think for one second the world needs another award, presented by a group to that same group then you are in effect a de facto supporter for the Nobel Prize. Exactly your same counter point on the left will ridicule your choice and simply use your own post (simply switching the phraseology from “right” to the “left” to promote their own ideology.
Got some cash to spare? Here’s an idea, send the money to Ken, Sarah, or Rubio not to create some subset of millionaires for self promotion just because they wrote a book, or are in the process of buying a football team and need another trophy.
Good Lord, they are, as we speak, destroying the greatest health care system in the world.
(I posted this in a lull in the coverage by the way.)
Al Adab| 10.13.09 @ 11:24AM
How about the Abe Lincoln award. "You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people..." Well you get the idea. I can think of several serving elected officials well deserving of such an award.
Also, Allan Drury, author of Advise and Consent, in one of his enjoyable follow up novels named his news anchor man Frankly Unctious. That might not be a bad award to establish too. I sure the government media could name several of their own.
Jim O'Brien| 10.13.09 @ 11:42AM
A British knighthood is also not worth the toilet paper it is printed on. Sir Ted Kennedy was knighted --- which tells me everything I need to know.
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 1:58PM
Which proves, as if anyone wanted any proof, that the benighted can be knighted.
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 11:46AM
A great idea Mr. Lord. but how do we know that in a hundred years they won't be giving it to a space-arafat?
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:51PM
Tim,
You are right to suggest this. Why, with the all the new age "conservatism" (take a look around) rearing it's ugly head, who's going to protect it?
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 4:09PM
Actually there's no need to wait a hundred years, I can picture a panel with almost any three sitting GOP senators easily nominating...Barack Obama. McCain would do it just to piss off of conservatives. Others to show "bipartisanship" and still others would trade their vote for a bit of tasty pork.
Michael Dooley| 10.13.09 @ 12:43PM
The sad part (or more exactly the horror) of all this is that when America withdraws its presense from Europe, the French, the Germans, the Dutch and all the rest will revert to what they all were quite good at in the past: killing each other in great numbers. Oh, they might take a few years stretching their legs; but before your know the old juices will start firin' up just fine. Then Ron Paul can sit back in the old rockin' chair eating cheese nachos at his Texas sod hut and tell us how he had been right all along.
I can't decide which will be worse.
Piffle| 10.13.09 @ 12:55PM
Americans killed each other in great numbers after they had effectively obliterated the native populace. Are they doomed to repeat, Michael?
Tim| 10.13.09 @ 1:48PM
He has a point, I'd take the Netherlands over Detroit.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:53PM
Pfffffffffffffffffsssssst. Your balloon just popped.
Joe| 10.13.09 @ 12:52PM
Excellent Idea, Mr. Lord. I hope it gets traction. Thanks for educating on the sorry history of Nobel Peace Prize.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.09 @ 2:31PM
Yeah, Red! A three pointer into the punchbowl!
You just never do get around to answering direct questions do you? Oh no, you just soar above the fray in your fantasy world and Paul's fantasy world.
You cannot discuss reality, so you acuse us of name calling. OK ! Answer the questions below.
I believe the above and below. Please disabuse me.
Simple question then. Had you been present when Cain attacked Abel to kill him, would YOU or Ron have "intervened"?
(copy paste from above)
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.09 @ 10:25AM
Well Red
I personally think Ron Paul is a whack job.
You and I both have benefitted wonderfully by
PAX AMERICANA during the last 65 years.
In fact, every American has benefitted greatly from Pax Americana.
Yes, we formed Pax Americana reluctantly during the closing days of World War II. Thank God for Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower in that regard.
Europe was destroyed, and we looked around at a crumbling of their colonial empires with all the associated power vacuums and chaos that HAD to be filled, or at least alleviated.
The only choice was to retreat again to fortress America, and let the true believer communists form Pax Internationale.
The ultimate termite mound world wide that might end the hopes for liberty or freedom for a whole world outside our borders.
We chose to shoulder our honestly felt responsibility to try to be a power for good in the world.
Yeah we stumbled around a lot, screwed up a lot, etc...BUT!
Overall, Pax Americana has been the most benign power the world has ever seen.
Who would Ron Paul have chosen to hand the pieces to at the end of WWII?
And whoever he handed the world to, what shape would the world be in today...Tovarich?
No, Ron is a nice whack job who forgets that there truly is a frightening world out there, and in some places they really do still kill you.... and eat you.
There is a Scripture that reads... "To whom much is given...much is required."
I spent a number of years in the third world. Ron's followers probably never have. I KNOW how much so many peoples look to us in hope for a better future. If nothing more than to think: "If they can do it maybe someday we can."
So
I sincerely thank every single man and woman in uniform and not that has gone out across the world on behalf of Pax Americana.
Who do you want to flavor the world's future?
Don't bog us down in mindless utopian trivia.
Somebody will have a "Pax". Who would you and Ron like it to be?
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 4:25PM
Great post, Old Tex!
But how dare you speak such common sense to such an intellectually advanced person? We must try to "understand" his viewpoint. We are the new "know-nothings," the "dispensibles" of the universe.
~Bah! Humbug! This Ron Paul Libertarianism is a blight! It is yet another fraudulent Leftist doctrine that is an enemy of what the Founding Fathers wanted for our republic. They'll keep trying to disguise themselves as For Freedom, but we won't be fooled!
Red Phillips | 10.14.09 @ 8:58AM
Ken, I have no idea how to reply to your post specifically because it is incoherent gibberish with a bunch of dogmatic assertions and a shaky premise that you put forward as fact. I disagree with the premise. There will either be Pax Americana or Pax Someone Else. Umm ... well no.
Had we not intervened in WWI, which was none of our business, there would have been a more just peace and very likely no WWII. So our meddling in WWI, against the better judgment of heartland conservatives and populists at the time, did incalculable harm.
If you want to espouse US world intervention in the name of universal peace and human rights, then be my guest. I would be more than willing to repeal the laws against Americans being mercenaries and allow you to have at it. But leave the US military, which is Constitutionally constituted for the defense of America not the world, out of it. And please do not call yourself a conservative or delude yourself into believing that what you support is any kind of conservatism. It is not. It is Jacobinism pure and simple.
If America wanted to do some real good in these countries, as an affluent Christian nation, we should send missionaries to convert them to the True Faith instead of soldiers to convert them to the new religion of universal democracy.
Marc Jeric| 10.13.09 @ 3:20PM
Ever since the demise of the USSR (thanks, RR) the communists of Norway call themselves "socialist-left" to avoid the unfortunate association. In our country they call themselves "liberals" and "progressives".
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 3:55PM
..and now, in some cases, "conservatives."
Curtis Dietz | 10.13.09 @ 4:31PM
No American has the right to criticize Neville Chamberlain. He declared war on Hitler after Poland at least, even though Britain were not ready. The US sat around for two years watching Europe burn, with a cowardly congress and defeatist anti-semite ambassador in London, one Joseph Kennedy.
The gross misunderstanding of the tragedy of Chamberlain is that it has led to a parade of little "Churchill want to be" politicians looking for the next Munich. To be a peace broker has become pollitical suicide. So now we have opted for eternal war, 8 years and counting. Are we having fun yet?
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.09 @ 5:12PM
Hello Curtis Ditzy (heh)
Pay attention! We have not been at war for 8 years, and no it is not fun yet.
We have been at war for 68 years and counting.
WWII, The cold war, Grenada, Somalia, Kosovo, AIDS in Africa, Desert Storm, and jihadism.
It still aint fun, but America still stands for freedom and decency, until 2009 at least.
I want to thank every American again who has honorably upheld Pax Americana.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 5:56PM
As for the Reagan Prize, I wouldn't be against it. How could I be, I'm a Reagan conservative and a Republican, it's ingrained in me, actually I was born with it already in me. It's God given. I'm for what is good, and for anything that promotes true conservatism. Who would protect it? We would, that's who. You can't sit back and say don't do something for fear it will become corrupt. Besides, Reagan conservatism won't ever die, because it's based on Truth. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Robert P. Kirchhoefer| 10.13.09 @ 6:01PM
Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! We can only sit on the sidelines so long. The Left can have all of its empty symbolism and self-ingratiating buffoonery. Their tired ideas won't feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or employ the jobless, and they certainly won't keep the peace. Great article Mr. Lord. I hope this gets some traction!
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.13.09 @ 6:32PM
Margie
I'm stickin' to it with you!
(Check out the paganism thread today.)
Robert P. K
I have coy/pasted that above to my permanent documents. Thank you
DaveS| 10.13.09 @ 8:18PM
When a high school senior, my English (i.e. NOT language arts) teacher asked the class (reminder: at the height of the Vietnam war) what was more important: 'peace' or 'freedom.' The overwhelming consensus of the seniors was 'peace' (I was in the distinct minority.) Her correct answer was 'freedom' and I won't ever forget the 'debate' and the answer. Anything named for Reagan should be a freedom prize so as not to tarnish his legacy and that of so many others with the 'peace' connotation. Another great thing about Obama getting the leftist's prize prize is that not he, nor Carter nor Gore will ever get on Mount Rushmore. Put Ron's likeness on the Rock where it belongs beyond the wildest protestations of the Left.
Margie| 10.13.09 @ 8:54PM
What a great post! I like your idea too about the Freedom Prize. And most of all the idea of putting Reagan's likeness on Mt. Rushmore. Don't know if it's possible, but it just goes to show how much we loved him.
victor| 10.15.09 @ 9:44PM
Yes, absolutely, Put Truman and Reagan side by side. The beginning of the Cold War and the End of the Cold War. The Alpha and the Omega.
Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 9:33PM
Why Not A Ronald Wilson Reagan Peace Prize? « The Daley Gator links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Hot Air » Blog Archive » Nobel committee defends decision: Obama’s, er, done some stu links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Joe D.| 10.13.09 @ 10:10PM
I concur with the idea that it should be a Reagan Freedom Prize, not a peace prize. They can continue finding new Neville Chamberlain's to give the peace prize to.
DaveS| 10.13.09 @ 10:43PM
Thanks, Margie and Joe D. All that's left of insignificance is the forgone 2009 Man of the Year prize from Time.
Pingback| 10.14.09 @ 12:14AM
The Reagan Prize | PowerTowneDistro.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Dennis D| 10.14.09 @ 8:51AM
Carter ignored the genocide of Pol Pots killing fields. I guess that makes him a peaceful man.
Kenneth Kurtz| 10.14.09 @ 4:16PM
I think it should be the Reagan Freedom Prize. As the Nobel proves, "peace" is subject to aspirational delusions. To whom have Rigoberta Menchu, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, et al actually brought peace? No one. And many Nobel winners have proven over time to be mere appeasers who brought only the peace of the grave.
But Regan, Thatcher, John Paul II and Lechs Walensa brought freedom to hundreds of millions.
Freedom is not won by flowery rhetoric and delusional ideology. Freedom is much harder work than that.
Pingback| 10.15.09 @ 9:58AM
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Something New Every Day » It’s time for the Reagan Peace Prize links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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UN « David Ben-Ariel links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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