Many qualified individuals were ignored so that Obama could get his Political Peace Prize

It is pleasantly surprising to see a lot of people questioning the merits of giving the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. The news is barely a day old, but it already appears that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is playing politics with the prize (at least more than they usually do). The nominations began in September 2008 (before he was elected) and ended Feb. 1, 2009 (barely a week after being inaugurated). This ironically is also about the same time Obama gave the "bombs away" orders to the CIA in Pakistan.

An overlooked aspect of this weekend has been who was overlooked in order to give the American Pharaoh this prize. Just looking at a short list of the more than 200 nominations, any of the following individuals were more than well-deserving.

Sima Samar, women’s rights activist in Afghanistan: “With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women’s Affairs.”

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence.

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: “These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon.”

Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for ‘inciting subversion of state power.’

Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China’s communist system. He now lives in the United States.

All of these people represent what the Nobel Committee should be looking for, since they are individuals (or groups of individuals) using their minds and energy to fight for injustice, alleviate poverty, and other humanitarian causes. As a libertarian, I see these people as worthy of recognition since they used voluntary donations, time, and/or their own efforts to try to achieve their purpose; the free market of ideas.

Even if you are a fan of President Obama, whatever "good" he may do is ultimately immoral since in order to do so it requires the forced confiscation of wealth and property from legally disarmed citizens. The last time I checked, the humanitarian work that Hu Jia or Sima Simar are doing isn't backed up by a government gun.

In fact, the Committee should make it a rule that nobody working for the government should be able to get a Peace Prize. Not only would it free up the competition for the true peacemakers (individuals using their rationality and reason in a free society to solve complex social problems), but any attention and legitimacy taken away from the institution of legalized coercion (government) is never a bad thing.

Instead, while the aforementioned "Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition" is busy cleaning up cluster bombs that are littering the world (dropped, of course, by government planes), the Nobel Committee gave the Peace Prize to a President who is dropping those same cluster bombs in Afghanistan.

It's Bizarro World, ladies and gentlemen.