Congratulations certainly are due the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the winner of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

OPCW won the award for its work in trying to rid Syria of the huge stockpile of chemicals, some of which it used Aug. 21 on its citizens.

The world should applaud the Nobel committee — although I personally was pulling for Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot by Taliban terrorists simply because she was attending school; Malala has taken her cause worldwide in promoting education and persuading the civilized world of the evil being perpetrated by the Taliban against women and girls.

But back to the OPCW.

There’s a certain irony in this organization getting the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/11/world/europe/nobel-opcw-dangers/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

The Nobel Prize is named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor. What do you suppose is his most famous invention? Nitroglycerin, which he combined with other chemicals to make an explosive more powerful than dynamite.

Nobel in effect is one of the fathers of weapons of mass destruction. Now the Peace Prize that carries his name is going to an organization dedicated to the eradication of a particularly heinous brand of WMD.

Of course, Nobel’s personal history matters not one bit and takes nothing at all from the honor that has gone to OPCW.

May the group take the $1.2 million it will receive and put it to good work to finish the job it has started.