Speaking of Illusions

Victor Davis Hanson rips Norway, land of the Nobel Peace Prize, a new one.

"...it sits on or near enough oil to allow what is otherwise a rather insignificant country to be the wealthiest per capita oil producer in the world, and enjoy the influence that many in the Gulf have grown accustomed to. Throw in minerals, natural gas, timber, and fish and the nation sits on a bonanza of natural wealth. No wonder there are philosophers who ponder how to dispense the largess and absenteeism is a national crisis (one receives almost ad infinitum the same cash whether “sick” at home or well on the job). The population of under 5 million is largely homogeneous (90% Nordic), and is thus stable, and both rich and safe beyond its wildest dreams. It does not border a Third World country; “difference” and the “other”—even with recent Islamic immigration—is still defined as speaking Swedish or Danish.

In other words, Norway has the leisure to be utopian, and cannot quite understand why other countries are not as liberal as it has proven. So Norway loves to give award to all sorts of right-thinking frauds (Menchu), scoundrels (Elbaradei), terrorists (Arafat), Stalinists (Le Doc Tho), Elmer Gantrys (Jimmy Carter) and hucksters (Gore)— as it sits in judgment of others from Lala land."

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"Norway is, in other words, the Hollywood nation. Imagine it is as the son or daughter of a movie star, one who grew up in Malibu, and feels so terribly about it that he lectures the U.S. about everything from global warming to George Bush’s assorted sins—confident that he will never have to work at Ace Hardware, and never have to live near South Central LA. That’ sums up Norway."

and offers some advise to The One:

"But can Noble Peace laureates still escalate in the short term to win a war, save thousands of Afghan lives from a Taliban take-over and ensure that “evil-doers” do not plan another 9/11 from safe havens? Will you—or tiny Norway—determine U.S. foreign policy? Is the medal around your neck a shiny medallion of honor or an albatross sent from a wily bestower?"

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"Some of us had doubts about your ‘let me at ‘em’ stump speeches, and ‘go into Pakistan’ tough talk in 2008. I felt that you were posturing and politicizing the war, given your Democratic opponents’ suggestions that you were weak on national security. As I wrote then, I worried that the goddess Nemesis was watching as you sounded like Patton on Afghanistan and Chamberlain on Iraq—and that an accounting might come due once the theaters were reversed. And so they have, and so the tab is now due."

Davis concludes with an excellent analysis of the dilemma the Norwegians have lobbed into the President's court, laying out the three options he now has. Which, if any, will Obama choose? I have my hunches, but I hope I'm wrong.
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Afterthought inspired by someone in the comments below Davis's piece. A Norwegian Wood revenge would be nice: