On the Nobel Peace Prize

I had something of a shocking wake up this morning, as WCCO informed me that, despite having no major peace related accomplishments to his name, President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

And then I got to thinking that maybe this was something of an improvement, as at least this time, they've awarded the prize to someone who hasn't yet done major damage, like Yasser Arafat or Al Gore, or the numerous winners who sponsored the Kellogg-Briand pact that made World War Two far worse than it needed to be, or the numerous winners who stood against the nuclear shield that prevented World War Three for over half a century, or United Nations "peacekeeping" efforts that serve only to roast children over fires (yes it happened, by UN personnel) and allow the warring sides to re-arm.

So here's a list of people who should have won the Peace Prize for real peacemaking, but did not.

11. John Browning, inventor of the 1911 pistol and .50 BMG that made war less thinkable.
10. Douglas MacArthur, who defeated Imperial Japan with the island-hopping scheme.
9. Uziel Gal, inventor of the Uzi machine pistol that helped save Israel from invasion many times.
8. John F. Kennedy, whose space program created the knowledge for the ICBMs and SLBMs that preserved the world from Communist tyrranny.
7. Robert Welch, who warned the world about the real consequences of Communism and the United Nations. (no I'm not a Bircher, but credit given where credit is due)
6. Joe McCarthy, who warned our nation that the State Department was working for Moscow too often.
5. Harold Briggs, who devised the strategies that prevented a Communist bloodbath in Malaysia.
4. Dutch Kindelberger, whose P-51 Mustang enabled U.S. and British bombers to help stop Hitler and Hirohito.
3. Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, whose atomic bomb prevented full scale war between superpowers from 1945 until the fall of the Soviet Union. (and arguably still does today between Russia or China and the U.S.)
2. Dwight Eisenhower, whose western offensive crushed Nazi Germany.
1. Ronald Reagan, whose "peace through strength" initiatives crushed the Warsaw Pact.

Congratulations to this year's winners of the "Bike Bubba Peace Prize."