Bush Gets First International Medal Of Peace

Think Progress:

To mark World AIDS Day, Saddelback Pastor Rick Warren is hosting a Civil Forum on Global Health at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Warren will present President Bush with the first "International Medal of PEACE" from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his unprecedented contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The "International Medal of PEACE" is given for outstanding contribution toward alleviating the five global giants recognized by the Coalition, including pandemic diseases, extreme poverty, illiteracy, self-centered leadership and spiritual emptiness. The Bush administration reports that its AIDS initiative helped treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[jugganaut]

Wingnutistan is an alternate universe. Up is down, hate is love, lies are truth and war is peace.

[NoaAnjali]

i'm furious about these responses. bush is going down as, arguably, the most corrupt president we've had. his policies have compromised the values of the better angels of america's nature. rick warren couldn't have come up with a worse name for the award.

all that said, we are just as narrow, myopic, bigoted, and channeling the "ugly american" attitude to not acknowledge good where there is good.

2 million lives in africa have been saved.

bush has done more for the cause of AIDS in africa than any president yet. perfect implementation? no. perfect policies? no. perfect AIDS support here in the u.s.? no. does this excuse any of his behavior in other arenas? absolutely not. pardon him for an unnecessary war? no, no, no.

...but for a moment, let's consider 2 million lives saved. let's be humans rather than ideologues and have the graciousness to acknowledge good wherever and whenever we might find it.

[lunchlady]

Okay, but calling this a "Peace Award" is still objectionable. LIke Fox Nooz calling themselves a "News Show". I wouldn't object if they gave Bush an "AIDS award" or a "World Health Award" or an "African Development Award" or something on that lines.
A Peace Award should be for doing something to reduce conflict, violence, arms sales, etc. or increasing diplomacy and cooperation among nations.
Giving Bush a Peace Award is just asking for ridicule.

[NotMcCain]

I'm giving him the "Worst President in History" award. Where's the headline?

[43P04T34]

Someone else already said it best, "A make believe medal from a make believe religion for a make believe president".

[NotMcCain]

Great line. I hope it is repeated often. (And a phony like Warren giving a phony "award" to a phony like Bush....well, yeah, it works).

[newshawk14]

My initial reaction was that this is a bad joke, then I saw who was handing out the award, and
realized my initial reaction was dead on.

[nikky]

you are so right they come out of the woodwork or the g---er

[NoSandwiches]

As a former karate instructor, I often dealt with questions from kids about what each belt color meant. We always told them that no matter what color belt you wear--yellow, blue, green or even black, the belt meant exactly whatever it was you did to earn the belt. A blue belt might be a low level belt in one system and a higher level belt in another. A brown belt may be very difficult to earn in one school and fairly easy to earn in another. It is only a symbol or a token. We made our kids work really hard for each rank, each step, and the were proud of their accomplishments. We all knew schools that awarded belts based on time in rank without real accomplishment beyond that.

So too, this medal means only whatever it is that W did to deserve it. Will he display it proudly on the wall of his den or will he tuck it away in his sock drawer? Does he REALLY believe he is deserving of a Medal of Peace? That whole aids things is pretty good....but how does it contribute to the entirity of this man's legacy?

Takes a sip of his beer...burps contentedly....yep! I reckon so.

[dadw5boys]

Ask the President of Boliva and Chaves who the Bush Adminstration has been trying to over throw to get their oil and natural gas if Bush deserves this.

Rick Warren just INVENTED THE AWARD !!!!!!!!!

This is a brand new Global Peace Group but the only one who would even think Bush and Peace belong in the same sentence.

[jan4insight]

The Saddleback is giving Bush a medal of "peace"???? I thought this was a total f-up until I read the article again - the Saddleback Church??? Oh now it makes. One bunch of loons awards the chief Loon - and it's like totally irrelevant to the rest of us.

[rosal]

Is this the same Rev. on that "unbiased" interview to Obama and McCain? This explains the award to the "peacemaker".

[SailFree]

That is an honor he deserves. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, which NEVER goes to anyone who actually DOES ANYTHING to secure peace, and in fact often goes to those who promote violence BUT TALK TALK TALK TALK about peace (JImmy Carter and Yassir Arafat, for examples), this award means something. Congratulations, Prez Bush.

One notes that Ronald Reagan, whose polices ended the Cold War (at least temporarily) and brought down (at least temporarily) the Soviet Union, never received a peace prize, though deserving.

[NoSandwiches]

Jimmy Carter is a living saint who has worked tirelessly for habitat for humanity.
George Bush was sleeping and accidently allowed some good to be done on his watch. So what. W would never do anything like that on his own initiative. This is a farce. Consider the source.

[Joeblue]

The Soviet Union went broke, Raygun had nothing to do with it. You can thank him for our economy though.

[yasmeen]

read the title 3 times coz something seemed like a typo...bush? or peace?

given the circumstances name of the medal should've been changed just this once.

[larazon]

Medal of PEACE?

What about the hundreds of thousands' bl00d on his hands? What about the t-0rture on his watch? What about the millions he displaced from their homes in Iraq? What about the AA's he left abandoned in New Oreleans in the heat and squalor for days?

[gcallaghan]

Hah!

What's next? The Gordon Gekko Scepter for Economic Excellence? An honorary membership in the Crawford Mensa Chapter?

[RTIII]

Of course, there's nothing in even the official description that relates to peace, but even when we look at the AIDS/HIV angle, Junior's actions are just as anti-helpful as with peace. Consider the rules against financial aid for all organizations that support use of condoms (or _any_ birth control for that matter)! No, he deserves no peace medal, not even for AIDS/HIV. In fact, quite the opposite: Junior is a criminal!
.

[Liam]

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[lilsongbird101]

Warren is a good man, with good intentions. However I do believe he needs increased discernment. As on his hosted Saddleback forum, he totally fell and encouraged his congregation and the evangelical base to be persuaded by his personal thoughts, yes and moral beliefs that are real. However the candidate he was promoting with his persuasion "McCain" was a fake, after the real presidency, following Bushes footsteps, that cannot be followed. Get a life McCain, lata Palin..

Discernment is when you can see through to the real heart, the intent and motive of the heart. Not just being convinced by someone using the "right words". Anyone can say words, especially words that others have said! No challenge to that. What about a real word from God?
Do ya homework
Jessica