Leave Ahmadinejad ALONE!

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Leave Ahmadinejad ALONE!

Posted Sep 25th 2007 11:10AM by Mo Rocca
Filed under: Mo Rocca, Columbia University, Ahmadinejad

The most disturbing thing about Ahmadinejad's appearance was the number of students opposed to him appearing at all.

Esther Lifshitz, 20, a Columbia University student and protester, said it was a "tragic irony" that Ahmadinejad was speaking at Columbia, while institutions in his own country don't have the same academic freedom.

Um, actually, that's precisely why Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak. Hokey as it sounds, our freedoms (are supposed to) make us stronger than a theocratic "democracy" run by clerics. Are we so insecure right now in our own values - which last time I checked included freedom of speech and assembly - that we're willing, even eager, to suspend them at a university, a place of inquiry?

If Ahmadinejad is "evil" (a word that's lost a lot of its punch over the last few years - The New York Daily News is determined to suck it dry of any meaning) I want to know what kind of "evil" - Hitler "evil"? Saddam "evil"? Or more Dr. "Evil"? Someone who plays at seeming menacing but is in fact a puppet of larger forces, in his case clerics?

This time I don't want to just take the administration's word for it, then complain about a lack of transparency later, if/when we engage Iran militarily.

The forum did in fact shed some light: Ahmadinejad's filibustering on the Holocaust question pretty much confirmed that he thinks the mass persecution of Jews by the Nazis is a myth, or at least a very inconvenient truth. His assertion that there are no gay people in Iran is laughable: He's either an idiot, a liar, or frustrated.

Maybe we knew all this before. Now we know it better.

Here's what is tragically ironic: You can damn well bet that many of those protesting the university's decision to let him speak decry the lack of questioning that preceded the invasion of Iraq.

***

As for Columbia President Lee Bollinger's dramatic introductory comments, I was unimpressed. As my readers Blayze and Dunkly pointed out, Bollinger was covering his ass by calling Ahmadinejad "a cruel and petty dictator."

As for the insults themselves, I suppose I get "cruel."

But calling him "petty" seemed particularly smug and arrogant - and off the mark. (Iran is already making our position in Iraq difficult and could make it a lot worse.) Belittling other countries is the surest way to get those that hate us to hate us even more.

Excoriate the guy as "cruel." Fine. But talk down to him as "petty"? Aren't we more confident than that?

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Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 2)

Previous 15 Comments

16. Answering a question in your column, I'd say A-jad's "Dr. Evil" - he's definitely a joke.

puck at 10:37PM on Sep 25th 2007

17. MO:

I have to agree with you on some aspects.

First of all Columbia's main interest seemed to be in trying to "corner" Ahmadinejad regarding his disbelief of and call for further research into the holocaust. His ignorance of this historic fact is of no relevance and has no bearing on anything but was made the most important focus of the questioning. For the life of me I could not see the importance of what Ahmadinejad "thought" regarding the holocaust. I mean c'mon, the Jews still do not accept or believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah or anything other than a mere ordinary man who walked the earth. In short, who cares what he thinks about the holocaust. Life is not all about the Jews and the world does not revolve around the Jews or memorializing their plight which was not theirs alone. Perhaps someone should inform Columbia of this. The focus should have been about what is occurring today rather than Ahmadinejad's thoughts on what happened 60+ years ago.

As an educated American I was also very embarrassed by University of Columbia Pres. Bollinger's arrogant demeaning attack of Mr. Ahmadinejad in his opening speech. Indeed, that is not how we greet or welcome a guest. The man should have been given a chance to speak and answer questions first before giving him a verbal ass whooping. Also, Bollinger tried relentlessly but unsuccessfully to get Ahmadinejad to re-iterate earlier claims that he called for the death of Israel. However, it doesn't take a genius to understand Ahmadinejad's position, that Israel belongs to Palestinians as well as to the Jews in which I fully agree and therefore I have to disagree with what appears to be Columbia's Zionist position.

I believe the event at Columbia was a total waste of everyone's time. Where were all the questions regarding Iran's support of terrorists? Where were the million of questions that should have been asked regarding Iraq and the Iranian's thoughts regarding the war, progress, and fight against terrorism? There were so many intelligent questions which should have been asked but weren't as Columbia seemed to focus mainly on one thing, Ahmadinejad's belief, disbelief, or confusion regarding the holocaust. If indeed Columbia was so offended by Ahmadinejad's interest in further research on the holocaust, then why did they find it necessary to use the forum to try to convince him otherwise? We all know that the holocaust took place so why waste valuable time trying to convince someone else that it happened? What would be the gain in that? Sympathy for the Jews? What is the importance in that? Let's remind everyone that the Jews were not the only race to be victims of the holocaust but no mention is ever made about them. Surely Ahmadinejad is wondering the same thing that I wonder about, where is Columbia's sympathy for the Palestinians too!

Shame on you Pres. Bollinger!

Brenda Donnelly-Iqbal at 12:22AM on Sep 26th 2007

18. Just to correct the PhD comment, learning two languages is not a requirement, unless your major requires it. For example, a history major studying a particular culture might have to learn their language, but a biologist studying cancer probably doesn't need to.

Jess at 12:41AM on Sep 26th 2007

19. Your obvious hatred towards Jews seems to blind you to the very reason of the importance of the Holocaust....because that level of discrimination still occurs to this day. We still have wars waged and innocent people dying because of differences in beliefs. This isn't something that "just" happened 60 years ago, it occurs to this day. So if people like Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust, what's next? Will we be denying Darfur in the year 2060? Will we ever learn to not hate? Apparently talking about the Holocaust for the last 60 years hasn't made people like you any less judgmental, so obviously it's important to still talk about it.

Terry at 1:23AM on Sep 26th 2007

20. Ahmadinejad, while seems fairly candid and, for a prez of a theocracy, not as hard core as you might imagine. The gay question could have been a perfect opportunity for him to do on a ranting diatribe, but he was pretty loose about it.

I wonder how much the Mullahs trust him. He comes to American, far from their reach to speak and represent Iran. Russia always seemed to have a hard time picking the perfect diplomats and reps because, while their regimes were universally repressive, the rep, being human, was also inheritly repressed, making it a sort of catch-22.

So while Ahmadinejad is high on the food chain, he seems like he may be a somewhat reasonable individual -- look at his actions, not his words. Actions do speak louder, do they not? He even dresses western (he could choose not to). He may very well be suffering a bit from the repression of the orthodoxy of the Iranian Mullahs -- how ironic would that be.

There's the off chance that he could be a future catalyst for change if these things are true.

I'm not saying these is definitley the case or even probably, but it seems that maybe looking at the situation as black and white may not be appropriate and perhaps there is nuance here.

toshiro at 11:52AM on Sep 26th 2007

21. When we are rude to someone, no matter what kind of person they are, we bring ourselves down to that person's level.

That's exactly what Bolinger did.

patti at 3:45PM on Sep 26th 2007

22.

"This thought just occurred to me - Would President Bush accept an invitation to speak at an Iranian University?" (Vegas 9/25)

"#9 - the question SHOULD be...would an Iranian university extend such an invitation to an American president?" (Angie 9/25)

"An Iranian university has invited U.S. President George W. Bush to speak about such issues as the Holocaust, terrorism and human rights."

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-02-voa29.cfm

Angie, it appears that your question has been answered. I guess an answer to my question is just around the corner.

vegastracon at 1:42PM on Oct 3rd 2007

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.