President Lee Bollinger of Columbia Univ.,deserves a great deal of credit for his leadership in battling the proposed academic boycott of Israeli institutions by English Colleges and Universities.
However in his invitation to the Iranian President, he showed not only naivitee' , but poor political judgement and immaturity.To use the cover of intellectual freedom is almost laughable.Could he have imagined that by introducing the Iranian President in a sharp and pointed manner,this would have any effect on him?
Ahmadinejad is a seasoned politician and demagogue.Any question,charge or accusation you throw at him he will throw it back at you with professional calm and doubletalk."Answer a question with a question or a charge",is his style.
Goebbels helped to perfect the message of Hitler.Ahmadinejad is using the Goebbel technique to repeat and repeat the Great Lies,hoping a few will listen with sympathy,if they hear the message over and over.
Today we have not only mass communication, but the willingness of a Columbia University to be a pawn in the message of a murderer.American soldiers in Iraq,Coalition sodiers in Afghanistan,Israeli citizens bombed by Iranian Hezbollah rockets can attest to his evil. European countries,the very places that housed the Holocaust ,have made it a crime to deny it.Yet this individual is welcomed,and as the op-ed in todays Haaretz pointed out, if he convinced one individual or 50 to his cause,it is a great loss for the forces of freedom.
We hear all day that the Iranian did not give direct answers either to the questions raised,or to the 60 minute interview.My question is,why can't we get a straight answer as to why under this same principle of intellectual freedom Columbia chased off of its campus the ROTC program ,or the Minutemen spokesman?
Is Iran's program for homosexuals(death) worse than the US military Don't ask Don't tell?
Why in recent years have conservatives been prevented from addressing American Universities (without liberals screaming-freedom of speech)but an evil tyrant who seeks our destruction is given the bully pulpit?
