September 25, 2007
Tools for the 21st Century
Tools for the 21st century...let's make a list:
liberals/Democrats
institutes of higher education
Any questions?
The appearance yesterday of Iran's Ahmadinejad at Columbia University was an unprecedented embarrassment to our nation, but you wouldn't know it if you were in the audience. Apparently he received rounds of applause from the students and faculty who were "academically enlightened" enough to want to attend what now passes for a debate at an Ivy League college.
Columbia's president, Lee C. Bollinger, may have sounded "tough" in the few questions he asked, but as expected, Ahmadinejad offered the usual platitudes, smokescreens and indirect answers. For example, when asked if he sought the destruction of Israel, he said, "We are friends of all the nations," he said. "We are friends with the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."
He also made the ridiculous claim that there are no gay people in Iran...fortunately the audience didn't seem to swallow it:
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Ahmadinejad said to howls and boos among the Columbia University audience.
"In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it," he said.
I guess he was too busy planning incursions into Iraq to read the news about this execution last year.
He then compared capital punishment in the US to capital punishment in Iran. However, the big difference is that here in the US, prisoners who are sentenced to death have committed the heinous crime of murder...and only meet their fates AFTER a very lengthy trial and appeals process. That's a far cry from executing someone either for being a homosexual or for having sex out of marriage.
But the big win for Ahmadinejad had nothing to do with his speech or his lame answers to lame questions...but the fact that he was allowed on Columbia's campus in the first place. Our enemies are supposed to tremble in fear of us, not RSVP to invitations to speak at so-called institutions of higher learning. I can just imagine how this whole incident is playing out back home in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East: "We have nothing to fear from those stupid Americans. They invite us to speak to their students!"
Just think of it: maybe Osama bin Laden's PR guy is phoning Columbia right now, jockeying for a speaking engagement.
Within a year, my older daughter will start looking at colleges. You can be sure that neither Columbia nor Duke (home of false accusations) will be on the list.
Show Comments »
will Colorado be on that list?
Posted by: Jeanette at September 25, 2007 12:28 PMWhy...YES!
Posted by: Pam at September 25, 2007 02:01 PMI blogged about this today, too. I was disgusted to be proven right that Ahmadinejad was hailed as a hero for speaking in America; they called us "the lion's den."
Bollinger is a disgrace. And, like you said, a total tool. Asking tough questions doesn't matter if you don't hold the person questioned accountable for giving a direct answer.
Posted by: Reverse_Vampyr at September 26, 2007 03:30 PMwe played host to khrushchev in 1959, fidel castro in 1960 and idi amin in 1975. the fact that we may find these men despicable or even evil doesn't mean we shouldn't hear what they have to say.
open discourse prevents wars.
(remember, khruschchev came here during the cold war, AND toured america).
Posted by: steve at September 26, 2007 09:03 PMEveryone ready for my confused and convoluted comment? Good, here goes. For some reason Amabalamadingdong speaking here doesn't bother me that much. The fact that we had him here and did not imprison him does, remember, we are about o bomb holy hell outta Iran. It is almost like Clinton letting Osama go when he had him in his grasp, well not really, this is probably important. This is going to come back and bite someone's ass and it sin't going to be mine, you know. Who is to say that he didn't meet with people to lay out the next series of attacks in our country under the guise of diplomatic imunity? Yes, I am confused.
Posted by: Two Dogs at September 27, 2007 07:53 AMTwo Dogs: Unfortunately, one of the important differences between OBL and Ahmadinejad is that the latter is a head of state. Arresting a foreign leader is complicated at best.
Steve: Khrushchev met with Kennedy at Camp David, while Castro was denied a meeting with President Eisenhower. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, was invited to speak at a prominent American university. It wasn't even a goverment function, it was simply a propaganda opportunity for the Iranian dictator.
Open discourse might prevent wars, but that doesn't mean we need to provide our adversaries with PR support. High-level talks between government leaders are one thing, the civilian populace endorsing and honoring an enemy of America is quite another.
Posted by: Reverse_Vampyr at September 27, 2007 06:57 PMkhrushchev also took a 10 day long tour of the united states.
Posted by: steve at September 27, 2007 07:26 PMSadly, the so called president of Iran is just another tin plated dictator who is trying to appear as a relatively fair and amiable statesman in his appearance at Columbia University! Quite the contrary, his real intent of gaining power is revealed in his hateful speech against the Jews and in his denial of the Holocaust, and his smart-assed remark, denying the existence of homosexuals in Iran! I would say to this demagogue, come on you aare not really fooling that many people; you are making to many unfounded assumptions as to the lack of intelligence and moral character of the people of the United States and the Intenational Community. Indeed,Sir if you were not trying to play the "Nuke Card", you merit much mention or attention, even with all the oil your country possesses. You are indeed a charlatan and liar!
Posted by: Linda E .Walsh at September 28, 2007 02:25 PM
