Al Who? Nobel What?

On average, the Nobel peace recipients are not leaders that one would feel comfortable following, and for the most part they've come and gone again quietly, a politically correct herdlet passing quietly into the past.

Some of the Laureates of the past are illustrative of higher standards than are apparent today: Norman Borlaug (1970), credited as the father of the green revolution in agriculture, who helped save a billion people from starvation; Lech Walesa (1983), an electrician who led his people to freedom, with a little help from his friendes; Mother Teresa (1979), who led others to peace through her example of care and self-sacrifice; George C. Marshall (1953), who helped reconcile a war-torn Europe; and a dozen others over the past 107 years. What stands out, though, from a review of recipients is how poorly the list has stood up over time.

Listed below are the recipients from the last 20 years. Missing are Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, who combined to free a quarter of the world's population while keeping the peace; and, the U. S. Armed Forces, which have freed more people and bred more peace than any other organization in the past century.

A few are consequential: Doctors Without Borders and the ICBL have labored and been effective. Some of the others are politically correct fadists who flash for a moment then fade like a single-hit musical group.

Too many are hacks, thugs and dictators: Kofi Annan, The U.N. (twice!), the IAE and el-Baradei, Mikhail Gorbachev (a dictator who at least knew the moment to surrender), Le Duc Tho, of North Vietnam, and then in a class all by himself, Yasser Arafat.

How can a group of politicians who have so self-consciously hugged the tragic Jimmy Carter and kissed the evil Dr. Arafat be taken the least bit seriously? How can an honor they bestow for efforts based on a lie, as are Gore's, do other than degrade those recipients truly deserving of the honor?

2007

INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) and ALBERT ARNOLD ( AL) GORE JR. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

2006

MUHAMMAD YUNUS and GRAMEEN BANK for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.

2005

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY and MOHAMED ELBARADEI for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.

2004

WANGARI MAATHAI

for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace

2003

SHIRIN EBADI

for her efforts for democracy and human rights

2002

JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America,

for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development

2001

UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA

KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General

2000

KIM DAE JUNG for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular.

1999

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES), Brussels, Belgium.

1998

The prize was awarded jointly to:

JOHN HUME and DAVID TRIMBLE for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

1997

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO BAN LANDMINES (ICBL) and JODY WILLIAMS for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.

1996

CARLOS FELIPE XIMENES BELO and JOSE RAMOS-HORTA for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.

1995

JOSEPH ROTBLAT and to the PUGWASH CONFERENCES ON SCIENCE AND WORLD AFFAIRS for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms.

1994

YASSER ARAFAT , Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, President of the Palestinian National Authority.

SHIMON PERES , Foreign Minister of Israel.

YITZHAK RABIN , Prime Minister of Israel.

for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.

1993

NELSON MANDELA Leader of the ANC.

FREDRIK WILLEM DE KLERK President of the Republic of South Africa.

1992

RIGOBERTA MENCHU TUM, Guatemala. Campaigner for human rights, especially for indigenous peoples.

1991

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, Burma. Oppositional leader, human rights advocate.

1990

MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH GORBACHEV , President of the USSR, helped to bring the Cold War to an end.

1989

THE 14TH DALAI LAMA (TENZIN GYATSO) , Tibet. Religious and political leader of the Tibetan people.

1988

THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING FORCES New York, NY, U.S.A.

1987

OSCAR ARIAS SANCHEZ , Costa Rica, President of Costa Rica, initiator of peace negotiations in Central America.

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In earlier years the selection committee would withhold selection of a nominee when none were sufficiently worthy. It has been 40 years since that occurred, far too long.