Good Intentions

The criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for awarding the prize to Obama didn't take long. Take this blog post by Michael Gerson, Bush's speech writer and WaPo columnist (he must have written it in his pajamas this morning):

Apparently, they now give out a Nobel Peace Prize for good intentions.
Unless I have missed something, President Obama has not yet achieved a nuclear
free world -- which was also, by the way, Ronald Reagan's good intention. He has
not yet achieved peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- a prospect the
Israel Foreign Minister recently dismissed as years away. He has not yet tamed
the nuclear ambitions of Iran, which has responded to outreach with deception,
defiance, bloody crackdowns and missile testing. He has not yet pacified
Afghanistan -- preferring, so far, to dither and fidget. He has not yet removed
the nuclear threat of North Korea, the world's wackiest, totalitarian nuclear
power. He has not yet solved the problems of global warming, achieved a free
Tibet, ended the slaughter in Congo, lifted the oppression of Burma or settled
the conflict in Darfur.

At first I thought the announcement of the prize was a joke. On further
reflection, the Noble Committee has made itself a joke. It has decided to give a
ribbon before the race, a trophy for aspiration, a gold star for admirable
sentiments. Which means that the decision it made is entirely, purely, solely
political. Members of the committee like Obama's goals and rhetoric. And since
they aren't American citizens, this is the only way they could vote for him. In
the process, they have forfeited any claim to seriousness. Peace -- the kind of
peace that keeps people from being killed and oppressed -- is an achievement,
not a sentiment. The Noble Peace Prize Committee can no longer distinguish
between the two.