Peace Off.

Strange reasoning by one of the Guardian's* many enthusiasts for Latin American Marxists, not the former KGB agent Richard Gott this time, but a Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman who argues that Obama could earn his Nobel prize if he does a number of things** including:

And Obama should rethink his approach to continental security (cancelling, for instance, Plan Colombia)

Plan Colombia is the US effort to fund train the Colombian security forces, ostensibly to fight the Drug War, but in reality to deal with all the security issues. I'm not a supporter of the War on Drugs, but I do support funding efforts to help democratic countries defeat terrorists. Anyhow since the launch of Plan Colombia (and the election of Alvaro Uribe as President) Colombia's murder rate has plummeted as peace has broken out throughout much of the country.

So in order to earn his Nobel, Obama should reverse a policy that has actually brought some degree of peace.

* I used to critique Guardian articles a lot because it is the country's most prominent left wing publication. Nowadays it is just because I read it more than other newspapers because their web presence is actually far better than any of their competitors.

** He also urges Obama to leagilise "the situation of millions of undocumented Latino workers, tearing down walls instead of erecting them." IMHO anyone using the euphemism "undocumented workers" is acknowledging that being honest and calling them "illegal immigrants" knows that their argument can't stand on its merits.