The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."
I hadn't heard of Shirin Ebadi until today. I commend the Nobel committee for calling attention to the struggle of the Iranian people to free themselves from the tyranny of the Mullahs.
I devised the Sharkansky Peace Prize last year in reaction to the Nobel's regrettable award to Jimmy Carter. Although I would not have come up with the name of Shirin Ebadi on my own, I can't object to her award. Those who fight for freedom in Iran in particular, and in the Muslim world more generally, deserve to be supported. I am not sufficiently familiar with the Iranian dissident movement to name any other individual who would be more worthy of recognition than Shirin Ebadi.
In that spirit, I name the recipients of the 2003 Sharkansky Peace Prize. Not in contrast to the Nobel Peace Prize this time, but following my own path to recognize those who have accomplished the most in the last year to achieve peace, human rights and security for free people.
The winners are: Paul Wolfowitz, Tommy Franks and Paul Bremer, for their respective roles in the liberation of Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was one of the founders of the Project of the New American Century and has long advocated the liberation of Iraq from Saddam's tyranny. As Deputy Secretary of Defense he has been a leading architect of Saddam's removal.
General Tommy Franks was the head of U.S. Central Command and in charge of conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom, which toppled the Baathist regime swiftly with relatively low loss of life and damage to Iraqi infrastructure.
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III is Presidential Envoy to Iraq and Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, responsible for reconstructing Iraq and setting it on a path towards freedom and prosperity. (Even the New York Times acknowledges today that progress is being made, even though it will take time)
Many other people played an important role in the liberation of Iraq, not least the President, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice; and the hundreds of thousands of the men and women in uniform who risked and sometimes gave their lives to do the heavy lifting that got the job done. The President and some of the senior administration officials were already recognized with the Sharkansky Peace Prize in recent years. Wolfowitz, Franks and Bremer are the three individuals who stand out at the head of the very large teams that liberated Iraq and have started it on the road to renewal.
Thank you to the many readers for their nominations. Other notable suggestions included: Daniel Pipes, Vaclav Havel, Natan Sharansky, Polish Premier Leszek Miller, various Israelis in their fight against terrorism, and Yassir Arafat's stomach cancer.
A complete list of Sharkansky Peace Prize Winners (most awarded retroactively) is here
UPDATE: My enthusiasm for this year's Nobel Prize is probably more muted than it deserves to be. I first learned of Shirin Ebadi from the Nobel announcement and today's news stories. But the Nobel Committee has such a mixed track record that their endorsement alone raises more questions than it answers. As Andrew Sullivan writes: "A GREAT NOBEL: I can hardly believe I'm writing this (and maybe there's a catch)". The fact that Amnesty International and other "human rights" organizations praise Ebadi leave me similarly unmoved. I wish there were more human rights organizations whose opinions were more convincing than Amnesty's are. In the meantime, this year's Nobel makes blogger Iranian Girl happy and proud and that's good enough for me.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 10, 2003 09:28 AMGood choices there, Shark. So how much cash do they get to split?
Posted by: Solomon on October 10, 2003 11:06 AMGood choices. I read your historical winners for the first time, and the theme that runs throughout is really uplifting.
You'll never make it as a European, though. Your definition of "peace" seems to have something to do with "defending or fighting for freedom." Who gave you permission to confuse two such unrelated concepts? Plus, some of your winners were MEAN. One even invented a gun!
Excellent choices, but I am reminded by my smart wife that Tony Blair would be another. His eloquent speeches laid waste to many of the multitudes who proposed that Saddam was better left in place.
Posted by: Insuficiently Sensitive on October 11, 2003 08:12 AMThe Nobel Prize for Ebadi is typical. Ebadi supports the theocracy but wants to change it to be more humane. Many Iranian exiles are upset by her choice. Ebadi also is anti-US and anti-Israel. This fact probably played prominently in the Nobel Prize committees choosing her.
Posted by: reid on October 12, 2003 02:25 PMthe track record of poor choices for the Nobel peace prize may have been extended.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8508_Peace_Prize_Winner-_Anti-American_Anti-Israel
Posted by: Kevin on October 13, 2003 02:52 PMThe US Army has launched Operation Sidewinder, storming 20 towns in the Sunni Arab center of Iraq and making dozens of arrests, in a quest to stop sabotage and attacks on US troops. The problem with this sort of operation is that it assumes that resistance to occupation is a zero sum game. There is a pie; it is a particular size; there is only one pie. So if you cut the pie in two and eat half of it, there will be half as much pie. But resistance is not a zero sum game, as Gaza and the West Bank show. Given Sharon's brutal tactics (which have included deliberately firing rockets into civilian apartment buildings), the pie of resistance should be completely gone by now. But some attempts to stamp out resistance can increase it, by enlarging the recruitment pool of resisters. The Sunni Arabs north, east and west of Baghdad from all accounts hate the US and hate US troops being there. This hatred is the key recruiting tool for the resistance, and it is not lessened by US troops storming towns. I wish Operation Sidewinder well; maybe it will work, militarily. Politically, I don't think it addresses the real problems, of winning hearts and minds.
Posted by: Juon on October 15, 2003 07:16 AM