# The Ten Worst Nobel Peace Prize Winners **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252 "2009-10-09T23:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/41 "2009-10-12T06:30:49Z")
> [@prfw](#): > > Here’s my list of candidates for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize. > > 1. Kim Jong-Il > 2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad > 3. Islam Karimov > 4. Alexander Lukashenko > 5. Hugo Chávez > 6. Robert Mugabe > 7. Michael Vick > All of these are imminently qualified, since none have instigated a world war or been involved in a domestic genocide exceeding 1 million people we like. So, by the criterion of “having great potential” they should all be top candidates next year. > > And they will have actually held their jobs for more than two weeks at the time of their nomination, so they have demonstrated remarkable restraint by going for long periods without doing un-peacefullike stuff. > > Anyone I missed? Kadafi ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/42 "2009-10-12T14:01:25Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > Clearly if someone wins a Nobel for their overwhelming drive to outlaw a particular weapon, regardless of what it is, they don’t deserve it as long as that weapon has reasonable uses. :dubious: I don’t think Alfred Nobel would have agreed with that. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/43 "2009-10-12T14:17:15Z")
Yes. After all, creating a framework for peace in the middle east, or negotiating an end to a war are certainly not what Nobel had in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/44 "2009-10-12T19:12:23Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > Clearly if someone wins a Nobel for their overwhelming drive to outlaw a particular weapon, regardless of what it is, they don’t deserve it as long as that weapon has reasonable uses. And clearly land mines have all sorts of uses that are perfectly legitimate in times of war; thus, we can’t agree with giving a peace prize to someone that wants to ban them. I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not, but I think a lot of people would agree that land mines DON’T have a legitimate use in war, that their negative side effects toward civilians and unfortunate tendency to make land unusable for generations far outweighs any benefit they might have during the actual conflict. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/45 "2009-10-12T21:46:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Ah. Romans. I’ve often thought that the idea of Pax Romana should rather be “subservience through brutal methods”. Does it count as peace if the populace is just cowed into obedience? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/46 "2009-10-13T02:20:59Z")
It does if you ask Thomas Hobbes. He says it’s the basis of peace, and what sets us apart from a state of nature, where there is ‘continuall feare, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short’. In order to stay out of that mess, all we can hope for is a powerful sovereign who imposes a strict rule of law. ---
**Author:** ![jbl7575756](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@jbl7575756](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbl7575756)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/47 "2010-09-13T23:55:49Z")
And Mohammed Yunus? Why the hate? I admit it seemed like a weird choice at the time, given that he’s an economist, but if you believe that violence is a side effect of poverty (which I do think is the case a great deal of time), then you have to embrace a successful new method of lowering the poverty rate. Microfinance has come under some fire, and it’s not a perfect cure-all, but I’ve heard too many stories of it changing people’s lives for me to dismiss it as a flash in the pan. Grameen Bank has changed the lives of literally millions of people in Bangladesh; it operates what is practically a parallel government in a country with a weak and ineffectual “real” government. [/QUOTE] * * * Md. Yunus has devoted his life to empowering women to create their own prosperity. Have you seen the poster of the child with the UZI and the caption, “People get cranky when they’re hungry.” There is absolutely a connection between poverty and conflict. Right on Kyla. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/48 "2010-09-14T03:44:20Z")
> [@col\_10022](#): > > > [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > > > It’s a JOKE. > > I’m afraid it wasn’t a ha ha I’m kidding joke. Its a "giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is so ridiculous that I think its like giving a Nobel peace prize to Kim Jong Il. > > I just don’t understand self proclaimed patriots that can cheer when America doesn’t get to host the Olympics and boos when the American President wins the Nobel peace prize. > > Sure it s bit much but Obama’s humble response and acknowledgement that he doesn’t really deserve it seemed to strike the right tone with me. I just don’t get people who want their country to fail because they don’t like Democrats in the white house. Gently…now gently…put…the…keyboard…down…that’s right…now, just baaaaack away from the computer…that’s it… I think you want to start a thread in GD or the Pit, or something. You are waaay too wound up in your protecting your humble President. Now, we really need to get back to the OP. Whether or not he is a godsend is not at issue here. Nor whether or not he is rightly traduced, or no. It is whether or not he was a horrible pick for the Nobel Peace Prize. I would have thought that OBL would be a winner by now since a. He hasn’t murdered anybody in years, and b. He took bold steps for peace when he offered a a framework for peace (I.e., everybody do what \*he \*says, and he will quit being a terrorist.) Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/49 "2010-09-14T03:54:07Z")
[quote=“Kyla, post:44, topic:513252”] > [@glowacks](#): > > I think a lot of people would agree that land mines DON’T have a legitimate use in war, that their negative side effects toward civilians and unfortunate tendency to make land unusable for generations far outweighs any benefit they might have during the actual conflict. They have a splendidly legitimate use in war. That is why they are made, and sold, and bought and used. They are, however, brutal, horribly, and vicious, and leave a sad legacy, but, that is why war is called war, and not ‘a great big party.’ Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/50 "2010-09-14T04:00:31Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > > > That is a very right wing list. Menachem Begin won the nobel peace prize and he, like Arafat, was a terrorist at one point in his life. > > Yes, that is a good point. Those who object to Arafat never seem to have a problem with Begin. IMO both prizes were well-deserved. Begin wasn’t a terrorist, he was a guerilla. His targets were always meant to be military. Arafat targeted innocent people. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/51 "2010-09-14T04:03:29Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > Arafat? A complex and flawed leader to be sure but people underestimate the amount of courage it required on his part to sign the Oslo peace accord. I don’t see the complexities and personality issues being what offends people, I believe it is the murders, and the rocket attacks against civilian populations. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ten-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners/513252/52 "2010-09-14T04:05:51Z")
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