If I were George W. Bush or Tony Blair, I would be feeling rather sore at the announcement of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. For eight long years Mr Bush and Mr Blair struggled to advance democracy, prevent weapons of mass destruction and combat terrorism without even a sniff of a Nobel prize for their efforts. Admittedly, the Iraq war was a disaster. There were, in the event, no weapons of mass destruction; and Osama bin Laden remains at liberty in his cave.
But no one knew that would be the outcome when they began in 2001. Then it was “glad confident morn”. A lot has happened since. Now Mr Bush and Mr Blair would have little better chance of getting the Nobel Peace Prize than Vladimir Putin for services to peace and security in Georgia.
