AHMADINEJAD AT COLUMBIA (Reinhard)

The Oregonian ^ | September 27, 2007 | David Reinhard

[jazusamo]

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Someday, I fear, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Monday appearance at Columbia University will be more than a quickly forgotten item in our 24-hour news cycle. Someday, I fear, history may mark his visit the way it now marks a long-ago debate on another campus.

The year was 1933, and the Oxford Union debated one of its most famous motions: "This House will under no circumstances fight for King and Country." Weary and cynical, the Oxford Union passed the motion, 275-153. Winston Churchill railed against "this ever shameful motion." And Adolf Hitler? Some say it helped prompt him to invade Europe.

What will history make of Monday's forum? Little, if Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are deposed or defanged before they can do more damage. But what if they go through with the things Ahmadinejad has been all too clear about pursuing? History will not be kind to the morally confused Columbia leaders who gave evil a forum in the name of freedom of speech.

Say this about the chaps who voted for the Oxford Union motion: They didn't really know what Hitler had in store for Europe in 1933. They also didn't invite Hitler to the Oxford Union for a chat.

Before dishing up his generalities Monday, Ahmadinejad has been clear about his plans for Israel and his thoughts on the Holocaust. He has said Iran does "not give a damn" about U.N. resolutions and that Israel is "a disgraceful stain on the Islamic world" and doomed to be "wiped from the map" -- a "fake regime" built on the Holocaust "myth." Also, Iran is not all talk. It's a state sponsor of terrorism, and its weapons are now killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

And, still, the head of this regime lands an invitation to one of our nation's most prestigious schools.

Lee Bollinger's remarks prior to Ahmadinejad's speech only highlighted the squalid folly of hosting him in the first place. Columbia's president preened about his university's "deep commitment to free expression and debate," but his other words betrayed a recognition that Monday's exchange of ideas wasn't going to be all that useful. Indeed, he cast doubt on his commitment to free expression.

How? Well, you don't invite someone in for an exchange of views and start off by insulting your guest. Yes, it was good to see Bollinger call Ahmadinejad a "petty and cruel dictator" whose musing on the Holocaust "makes you . . . ridiculous" -- even if he did so to try to salvage Columbia's honor. But if you cannot invite guests to your university without feeling compelled to insult them, you probably shouldn't invite them in the first place. It's rude. Ahmadinejad was right to call Bollinger on this, and the crowd was right to applaud Ahmadinejad's protest.

It's also clear that Bollinger didn't have high hopes Ahmadinejad would say much of interest. "I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions," Bollinger said. "But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us."

Ahmadinejad did not disappoint, but I doubt his predicted evasions were more meaningful than the raw fact of his speaking at Columbia.

And what was its meaning? Iranians have now been told that Americans gave Ahmadinejad a standing ovation and applauded his musings on international affairs. Americans, for their part, have learned that one of our great universities feels fine giving a megaphone to an enemy in wartime -- while at the same time refusing to allow the ROTC on its campus.

Is that too harsh a judgment? After all, who says Ahmadinejad and Iran are our enemy?

Bollinger says so. He made this plain Monday. "A number of Columbia graduates and current students are among the brave members of our military who are serving or have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," Bollinger said to Ahmadinejad. "They, like other Americans with sons, daughters, fathers, husbands and wives serving in combat, rightly see your government as the enemy. Can you tell them and us why Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq by arming Shiite militia targeting and killing U.S. troops?"

Yet Columbia invites a man "rightly" seen as the enemy -- an enemy in a proxy war that results in the killing of U.S. troops -- to sit down and chat.

How will history judge Bollinger and Columbia? High-minded and harmless scholars or useful idiots?

[jazusamo]

Americans, for their part, have learned that one of our great universities feels fine giving a megaphone to an enemy in wartime -- while at the same time refusing to allow the ROTC on its campus.

Reinhard hits the mark, it's disgusting.

[clamper1797]

How will history judge Bollinger and Columbia?

I know how I judge them ... traitorous idiots ...

[2ndDivisionVet]

In the America that I grew up in, Lee Bollinger would be up on charges of treason, Columbia would be shut down for rejecting ROTC and Ahmanutjob wouldn’t be allowed near our country.

[jazusamo]

Agreed, and the one I grew up in also.

[Doctor Raoul]

"A number of Columbia graduates and current students are among the brave members of our military who are serving or have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," Bollinger said to Ahmadinejad.

This is the only time you'll ever hear Columbia speak well of the US military and only because Bollinger needed to cover his rear.

[Tolik]

David Reinhard:

...Say this about the chaps who voted for the Oxford Union motion: They didn't really know what Hitler had in store for Europe in 1933. They also didn't invite Hitler to the Oxford Union for a chat.

Before dishing up his generalities Monday, Ahmadinejad has been clear about his plans for Israel and his thoughts on the Holocaust. He has said Iran does "not give a damn" about U.N. resolutions and that Israel is "a disgraceful stain on the Islamic world" and doomed to be "wiped from the map" -- a "fake regime" built on the Holocaust "myth." Also, Iran is not all talk. It's a state sponsor of terrorism, and its weapons are now killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

And, still, the head of this regime lands an invitation to one of our nation's most prestigious schools.

...Ahmadinejad did not disappoint, but I doubt his predicted evasions were more meaningful than the raw fact of his speaking at Columbia.

And what was its meaning? Iranians have now been told that Americans gave Ahmadinejad a standing ovation and applauded his musings on international affairs. Americans, for their part, have learned that one of our great universities feels fine giving a megaphone to an enemy in wartime -- while at the same time refusing to allow the ROTC on its campus.

Is that too harsh a judgment? After all, who says Ahmadinejad and Iran are our enemy?

Bollinger says so. He made this plain Monday. ...

...Yet Columbia invites a man "rightly" seen as the enemy -- an enemy in a proxy war that results in the killing of U.S. troops -- to sit down and chat.

How will history judge Bollinger and Columbia? High-minded and harmless scholars or useful idiots?

Nailed It!
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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Meanwhile in Iran:

Iran's Iron Fist ( The mullahs are cracking down [once again] on dissent.

*************************EXCERPT Intro FR Post*************************

Iran's nuclear ambitions are just one aspect of the mullahs' iron-fisted approach to maintaining their power. According to an article in the Monday Wall Street Journal (entitled "Domestic Terror in Iran"), the powers that be that run the Islamic Republic are cracking down against "anti-Islam hooligans," as well as "trade union leaders, student activists, journalists and even mullahs opposed to the regime." After describing the recent public execution of seven men, the author, Amir Tahiri, states:

"The Mashad hangings, broadcast live on local television, are among a series of public executions ordered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month as part of a campaign to terrorize an increasingly restive population. Over the past six weeks, at least 118 people have been executed, including four who were stoned to death. According to Saeed Mortazavi, the chief Islamic prosecutor, at least 150 more people, including five women, are scheduled to be hanged or stoned to death in the coming weeks.

"The latest wave of executions is the biggest Iran has suffered in the same time span since 1984, when thousands of opposition prisoners were shot on orders from Ayatollah Khomeini."
...
"The campaign of terror also includes targeted 'disappearances' designed to neutralize trade union leaders, student activists, journalists and even mullahs opposed to the regime. According to the latest tally, more than 30 people have 'disappeared' since the start of the new Iranian year on March 21. To intimidate the population, the authorities also have carried out mass arrests on spurious grounds.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is a book (now available in paperback ):

***********************

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left
(Hardcover)
by David Horowitz

********************************************************

And reviews:

****************************************

Editorial Reviews

Rich Lowry, Editor National Review

David Horowitz is synonymous with pyrotechnics. A historian and polemicist of the first order, he is paid the ultimate compliment --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Davis Hanson, Author, Ripples of Battle

An original look at those who want us to fail in the Middle East, both at home and abroad. The --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

***********************************************************

See all Editorial Reviews

Fascinating Analysis of Leftist Goals, August 13, 2006

Reviewer: N. Sincerity - See all my reviews

A former 1960s radical, Horowitz is well-acquainted with the Leftist mindset. In this book, he strives to explain the modern alliance between left wing progressivists and radical Islamofascists. He argues that this alliance is based on a common desire to destroy Western capitalism. Leftist sympathy with Islamofascist ideas makes no sense from an intellectual point of view, given that countries ruled by radical Islamists are among the most racist, sexist, theocratic states in the world today. However, Leftists have recognized that they can benefit politically from destructive terrorist attacks on the Western world. A West under attack can be made to turn on its leaders in fear and desperation (as they did in Spain after the Madrid train bombings). Only once people reject current government structures can the Left execute its anti-capitalist revolution and build a new reality that mirrors the Leftist view of utopia.

The complete and utter idealogical hypocrisy of the Islamofascist-Leftist alliance is distressing, but as Horowitz reminds us,

Leftists radicals truly believe the ends justify the means.

***************************************

[jazusamo]

Thank you both for the ping, posts and links.

[FreedomPoster]

>>After all, who says Ahmadinejad and Iran are our enemy?

Anyone paying any attention whatsoever to what is and has been going on in Iraq.

[alloysteel]

Am I the only one that noticed, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad OPENED and CLOSED his address to Columbia, with a prayer to Allah?

And there were repeated references to the injustices that were visited upon ALL Muslims, by the non-Muslims arrayed against the Mahdi army.

Of course, nowhere was there made mention of the phenomonen of Muslims being in far greater danger from OTHER Muslims than they ever would be from ANY non-Muslim.

[DuncanWaring]

Americans, for their part, have learned that one of our great universities feels fine giving a megaphone to an enemy in wartime -- while at the same time refusing to allow the ROTC on its campus.

More specifically, Columbia refuses to allow the ROTC on campus because they won't hire obvious homosexuals, while their honored guest hangs homosexuals by the neck until dead.