At a conference on the shores of the Bay of Bengal I happened to have a long talk with a former general who while on active service ran an army engaged in conflict with a major Muslim nation. His comment about the "surge" was this: "You never reinforce a losing situation."

But reinforcing the American military commitment to the Middle East is the maxim of the Administration. It is the Vice President's essential thesis: the American military must be firmly installed in the Middle East until the end of oil, and until anti-American Islamic fervor fades away, no matter how long that may take. He sees American dependence on Middle Eastern oil lasting at least 60 to 80 years, notwithstanding the impact on the environment, not to mention the current account deficit. He sees armed opposition to Islamic fundamentalism as lasting at least as long as the Cold War, and of course he thinks of the conflict as the successor to the Soviet threat against capitalism and democracy. The Vice President has explained all this many times, in various ways, and in his heyday he persuaded virtually all of the mainstream media to agree with him.

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Can you think of anyone who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Al Gore? He's certainly someone who didn't ask what the country could do for him, but rather what he could do for his country, and the world. His personal courage, in the face of not only defeat but mindless negative commentary from the mainstream media, has enabled him to wake up the sleeping world on climate change and sound the clarion call of honesty about Iraq, civil liberties, and the real risks to the American Dream.