Posted on 09/25/2007 4:53:52 PM PDT by dervish
The true novelty of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance Monday at Columbia University did not, as many critics would have it, lie in the fact that an august Ivy League institution had invited the Iranian president—a Holocaust denier, authoritarian leader, and sponsor of terrorism—to speak on its campus. The protests, the fury, the screaming New York tabloid headlines, the counterarguments about free speech—all that sort of thing we have seen before.
No, the novelty of Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia lies in the fact that he wanted to make that speech at all. Though a blustering Columbia dean foolishly told Fox News that "if he were willing to engage in a debate and a discussion," the university would happily invite Adolf Hitler to speak, too, it's impossible, in fact, to imagine the Führer accepting. Hitler staged his theatrical public appearances with extreme care—banners, uniforms, vast crowds—and never for the purpose of creating catchy sound bites. He wasn't interested in impressing upon anyone his status as an internationally accepted "democrat" who could keep up his end of a dialogue with American students. He was interested in demonstrating his power to Germans. The same could be said of Stalin and, among modern totalitarian leaders, of North Korea's Kim Jong-il.
Ahmadinejad's agenda is different, though, from that of the traditional autocrat. His goal is not merely to hold power in Iran through sheer force, or even through a standard 20th-century personality cult. His goal is to undermine the American and Western democracy rhetoric that poses an ideological threat to the Iranian regime.
'snip'
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
As someone I heard today so aptly put it,Ahmadinejad’s speech will be editted and passed around the Middle East with any negative stuff cut out. All the “cheering” he got,and there was quite a bit of it by those academic morons will be played over and over again !!!
I wish to know who gave him a standing ovation. Their names should be made public.
They are your neighbors children - if it took a village to raise a child, the village failed.
Or is it just an intellectual ghetto?
They had to be damaged goods to even go there.
Ummmm, because it's safer than speaking in Damascus? ROTFLOL
I want to know if he ever changes that suit..It seems to me its the same ugly one all the time ewwwwww. I wonder why he doesn’t seem to have another?
And they vote.
The dumb bastards in academia do NOT belong on the world stage of foreign policy,giving a propaganda platform to a certifiable nut-job. He played Columbia like the naive dim-witted fiddle it is. The tough talk narrative preamble means nothing and will be known for what it was.... a last minute Columbia fig leaf from the ninnys up on the west side that will be lost to the cutting room floor. Meanwhile, all the “good stuff” will make it’s way through out the middle east. Another great play by the out of touch elitist left from the hallowed halls. Fools, all of them.
Can’t believe that no one has made this connection yet:
At Columbia, Ahmadinejad offered the infidels (us) the opportunity to convert, on our home turf, in a way that he knew we would hear. An invitation to convert to Islam is apparently one of the traditional steps before jihad.
Today, Ahmadinejad stated that the ‘nuclear issue is closed’ (yes, that’s a paraphrase of a translation, so there may be some uncertainty there). Such defiance of world nuclear regulatory bodies appears to be a (non-traditional) step before detonating a nuclear device.
Put the two together, and what do you have? Traditional and non-traditional hints that something (like NYC) may go boom in the near future.
Yikes.
“Today, Ahmadinejad stated that the ‘nuclear issue is closed”
My speculation, I now expect that Iran will be refusing any further IAEA inspections. And that means that they are moving forward to an undisguisable stage of their nuke development.
His tailor was gay.
Iran will have its nuke before Bush leaves office in January, 2009, if it doesn’t have it already.
Well, I’m amazed. An intelligent article from Slate.
funniest post i’ve seen all week :P
But in truth, George Bush or Anne Coulter would not be welcomed nor allowed to speak at Columbia. Now, isn't that perverse as all heck?
That cartoon nails it. Ahmadi’s sweet talk has the Left in a swoon.
lol Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.