REALITY INTRUDES ON THE ELITE LEFT’S WORLD OF WORDS: John Kerry threatens to charge Russia and Syria with war crimes. I guarantee Putin and Assad aren’t worried. Kerry lives in a world of words. He really thinks what he says has decisive effects. Without the will to act on the battlefield, his words are hot air. Pompous Norwegians have bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize on Juan Manuel Santos, a failed Colombian president who negotiated a flawed peace deal Colombia’s citizens rejected. Let’s agree that Colombia’s dirty war stained everyone. Former President Alvaro Uribe is a stained man, but Uribe is the leader who defeated the Communist rebels. He and the Colombian military created the military and political conditions that brought the rebels to the table. Santos didn’t. Why didn’t the Nobel committee give the prize to both Santos and Uribe? Oh, right. Santos is a socialist. Uribe is a conservative. Giving the award to Santos shows the peace prize is a joke.

UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION: One commenter is quite correct. Santos served as Minister of Defense under Uribe. My original post could be read to imply that Santos didn’t oppose the FARC. He did. That needs to be emphasized. Once negotiations started, Santos split from Uribe — Uribe was stained. Santos said he was learning from the mistakes of prior leaders. Was Santos playing good cop, bad cop? Maybe. However, Uribe argued that the deal Santos ultimately negotiated could be used to put him (Uribe) in jail. If the Nobel committee had given the prize to both Uribe and Santos I wouldn’t have griped. As for his economic inclinations, I see Santos as more left than Uribe. That may not make him a socialist, but the perception does make him more palatable to European lefty elites.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: In 2002 Uribe said his administration would be devoted to defeating FARC. This is a classic strategypage update, from election day 2002. “FARC has threatened to kill anyone who votes for Uribe.” Uribe didn’t rule out peace talks if the rebels stopped their attacks. They didn’t. Over the next eight years he dealt FARC defeat after defeat. Those defeats are what led to real peace negotiations. When the Santos administration announced new negotiations in August 2012 I was hopeful, even though the strategypage update at the time doesn’t sound hopeful. (August 27, 2012 post.) The initial talks were fitful. Ah. Here’s the update I was looking for. December 8, 2012. “Most Colombians want justice, and sorting that out may be the most difficult part of the negotiations.” That proved to be true. Colombians judged the deal Santos negotiated to be unjust.