Giuliani Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
In the New York Times op-ed section, Olle Wastberg makes the case for the former mayor:
TODAY I will send a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating the former mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for the Nobel Peace Prize. As a former member of the Swedish Parliament I have the right to submit nominees — in the past I nominated Elie Wiesel, who won in 1986 — and I selected Mr. Giuliani because I believe that he has, through his political efforts, saved more human lives than most people alive today.
Mr. Giuliani took office in 1994, when the city was rife with gang violence, rundown neighborhoods, robbery, graffiti and litter. The police had lost the daily battle against serious crime. The mayor brought with him a policy of rethinking the fight against crime — a policy that proved to be effective even after he left office: a quick comparison of crime rates collected by the Police Department in 1993 with those from last year show that murders went down by 76.2 percent; rapes by 41.1 percent; robberies by 74.2 percent; assaults by 57.5 percent; burglaries by 77.3 percent; grand larcenies by 45.7 percent; and car thefts by 84.5 percent.
Or, in more human terms, it would appear that over the last 12 years the policies Mr. Giuliani put in place have spared New York perhaps 10,000 murders, 15,000 rapes and 800,000 robberies. This is clearly a humanitarian accomplishment of great magnitude.
Wastberg rightly acknowledges the contributions of former police chief William Bratton, though he contends that “it is Rudy Giuliani who personified the policy.” Wastberg also addresses Giuliani’s critics, saying that the “perception” of racial profiling is “largely false.” In light of these points, he makes a pretty decent case.
I question the assertion that Giuliani has “saved more human lives than most people alive today.” To be sure, he has reduced New Yorkers’ exposure to violent crime and improved the city’s quality of life (not to mention the seminal leadership role during 9/11). But has he directly prevented deaths in the way that, say, Paul Farmer has in Haiti? I doubt it. Then again, Wastberg’s pick certainly sounds more plausible than last year’s nomination of the European Union.
Overall, though, the op-ed is great publicity for “Giuliani 2008.”
Whether Rudy Giuliani has made great strides in worldwide peace is certainly debatable. But two facts remain:
1. He is committed to the security of NYC, America and human liberty worldwide.
2. Anyone who puts merit still in this propaganda award is supremely misguided. The Nobel Peace Prize will be forever tainted for the 1994 award to Terrorist Arafat that was never repealed and the award two years ago to Jimmy Carter as a direct affront to efforts of President Bush to bring democracy and freedom to areas continually ignored and appeased by Carter and his cronies.
The Carter award, and Jimmy’s acceptance rather than turning it town in the name of patriotism and support of the Commander-In-Chief is an unforgivable indictment of Carter’s anti-Americanism. This is a guy who went on record in the mid-90’s to human rights activist Natan Sharansky that Hafez Assad always keeps his word. He turtled during the Iran Hostage Crisis with leadership skills that would make the vice president on the most recent season of 24 look like a decisive, no holds-barred commander. He is ultimately reponsible for his role in allowing North Korea to pursue its nuclear arsenal in 1994 as a representative of President Perjury.
I have about as much faith in the Nobel Peace Prize as I do in the UN and the boxing judges at an Olympic bout.
Point being, Giuliani wouldn’t be a bad choice, but this prize has about as much logic as Syria and Sudan sitting on the UN Human Rights Commission.
Instead of talking about peace, President Bush is actively pursuing it in places like Afghanistan and Iraq that Jimmy Carter couldn’t fathom democracy ever taking hold. So let’s let the Peanut Farmer go monitor some bogus election…better yet, send him to places where it would matter like Zimbabwe, so he can battle both election fraud and racism all at once.
Dude, anyone can be nominated. I think I’ve been nominated three times. “Saved more lives than most people” is a really weak argument if you include policymakers, since then it would include virtually all non-genocidal policymakers.