Choosing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed ElBarade, was WEAK, really WEAK!

God, just a bit after choosing that incompetent Kofi Annan and the UN.

Please, tell me what this choice does other than seek to embarrass the Bush Administration over Iraq.

Then tell me what the IAEA has ever accomplished--ever. Anywhere. Any time.

They point fingers and nothing more. And they're constantly getting it wrong or late.

A choice like this is so weak, so lame, so lacking in courage. Christ, even I'd pick Nunn-Lugar (and oh boy do those two want it bad!) over this.

Here's a daring choice for a dangerous time, right out of my Conclusion ("Heroes Yet Discovered") in Blueprint for Action:

The first Islamic leader to win the Nobel Peace Prize: Of course, the temptation here is to suggest that Iraq's primary Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husaini Sistani, has within his grasp the current opportunity for such greatness in post-Saddam Iraq, exerting such control as he does over the political evolution of the country. But if not there, such a development must happen eventually somewhere as part of Islam's inevitable Reformation-like recasting of itself in the region, so as to allow countries therre to build sufficient ecoonomic connectivity with the outside world to accomodate the growth in job creation necessary to process the huge youth bulges currently making their way through societies. [p. 335]

Now THAT would have been a daring and courageous choice that subtly stuck it to the Bush neocons while simultaneously recognizing how much bloodshed (yes, bloodshed) has been avoided thanks to Sistani's truly wise leadership. The fact that Iraq isn't yet in an all-out Shiiite-Sunni war is due primarily to that man's leadership. That sort of peace-enhancing leadership is exactly the sort of thing the Nobel Peace Prize should be recognizing. This guy is taking huge risks and saving lives.

Compare that to IAEA or Nunn-Lugar and there is no comparison.

Daring times require daring choices, Picking IAEA was about as unimaginative as you can get (when too scared to pick someone truly meaningful, select a bureaucrat from an international organization).