It is highly disappointing to me personally and as an American that the Bush administration is the proclaimed enemy of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mohammed El Baradei.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to the will of Alfred Nobel the prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

This puts George W. Bush and his cronies in direct opposition to a person recognized for his work to resolve international problems without recourse to the bloodshed and destruction wrought by warfare. The Bush administration, conversely, sees the power of standing armies, force projection and warfare as the only satisfying means of resolving international diasgreements.

Naturally, the bully prefers to use his strength to resolve disagreements. Unfortunately, problems resolved by force, where the powerful inflicts a solution on an unwilling opponent, are never actually solved. They simply feed the anger and resentment that keeps the disagreement alive. Only solutions that respect the rights and viewpoints of both sides can lead to lasting resolution.

Mohammed El Baradei has excelled in the face overwhelming opposition. When he did not rubber stamp the false and misleading reasons George W. Bush used to wrongly invade and occupy Iraq, he was pilloried and ridiculed by every means the government of the United States of America could muster. He was insulted in the world press. The United States attempted to discredit him and get him fired from the United Nations in order to replace him with a figurehead who would toe the Bush administration line.

Make no mistake. If this was an international thriller novel, the good guy would be Mr Baradei and the bad guy would be George W. Buah. It is encouraging that the majority of the civilized world recognizes that Mr Baradei's tenacity and dedication to the truth triumphed over all of the Bush administration's lies and propaganda. Americans may remain generally clueless, but the rest of the world sees more clearly.