So the E.U. at large has received the 2012 Nobel ‘Peace’ Prize. I’ve put Peace in quotes because it seems the Nobel committee has lost sight of what that word means. Obama won it a few years ago even as he escalated several wars around the world, violated human rights, and blatantly ignored international law. Many members of the E.U. have been right there with the Obama and the U.S. as it continued on their imperial (mis)adventures. Both examples make me wonder: how is the Nobel committee defining peace? What does peace mean in the 21st century?

WSWS provided a basic overview as to why many feel that it’s downright silly for the E.U. to have been awarded the Prize:

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is motivated by purely political considerations. It is aimed at providing support to all those who, in the name of defending the EU, are carrying out the most brutal attacks against working people since the 1930s.

This entire line of argumentation turns reality upside down. Since the Maastricht Treaty, twenty years ago, which laid the basis for the European Union, the EU or its leading powers have been involved in every major imperialist war and crime—including the first Iraq war, the bombing of Yugoslavia, the war in Afghanistan, the second Iraq war, and more recently the war against Libya and the preparation of wars against Syria and Iran.