Thomas Friedman has a marvelous column in the October 11^th number of the New York Times, urging President Obama to go to Oslo and accept the Nobel Prize “on behalf of all the most important peacekeepers in the world in the last century — the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.” We were particularly pleased with Mr. Friedman’s column, because it followed by only two days the New York Sun’s latest editorial urging that the peace prize really should go to G.I. Joe. Mr. Friedman has gone us one better, crafting for Mr. Obama an eloquent acceptance speech, in which he would have the president accept the prize on behalf of the American soldiers who landed at Omaha Beach, the American airmen who broke the Soviet blockade of Berlin, the American soldiers who stand guard in Afghanistan, the American men and women patrolling today in Iraq.

Indeed, Mr. Friedman mentions just about everywhere GIs have served since World War II, from Korea and to Sinai, save for Vietnam. No doubt an oversight. “If you want to see the true essence of America, visit any U.S. military outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Mr. Friedman would have Mr. Obama say in his acceptance speech. “You will meet young men and women of every race and religion who work together as one, far from their families, motivated chiefly by their mission to keep the peace and expand the borders of freedom. So for all these reasons — and so you understand that I will never hesitate to call on American soldiers where necessary to take the field against the enemies of peace, tolerance and liberty — I accept this peace prize on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. military: the world’s most important peacekeepers.” Let us just say, George W. Bush couldn’t have put it better.

For those who are just tuning in to this idea, the notion that the prize should go to the men and women of the American military was first advanced in a now famous essay, written by Neil J. Kressel and published in the 1990s Forward. The piece itself was republished in the American Legion magazine, and almost every year during the remainder of the 1990s, the Forward itself issued editorials on the idea. The campaign was picked up by the New York Sun, in such editorials a “A Nobel Prize for G.I. Joe” and “The Next Nobel”. Generally the idea has been met with bemusement from the Left, which tended to view the idea as jingoistic. So it’s awfully nice to see someone like Mr. Friedman weigh in on behalf of the G.I. Joes and G.I. Janes who have quietly, with little recognition in the world of liberal opinion, been putting their lives on the line, in places where so many others would not go, and always for the cause of peace, democracy and freedom.