The mail I received last evening, following my comments on Ahmadinejad, and the comments of Ezra Klein, are of a piece. Supposedly, I’m a coward for not wanting him to speak. McQ seemingly has thought about this, however, and has an answer.
To the Ezra Kleins of the world, no one is afraid of what Ahmadinejad might say.
Not a bit. In fact I wasn’t at all surprised by what he said at Columbia.
That’s not why I objected to his speaking.
I objected to his speaking because he’s a thug and a terrorist. I objected to his speaking because he has American blood on his hands. I objected to his speaking because while he was standing at the podium at Columbia, Iranian EFPs and rockets were aimed at American soldiers in Iraq.
You don’t fete men who are responsible for killing your countrymen. You don’t socialize with them. You don’t legitimize them. You don’t invite them for tea and crumpets and photo ops or give them a platform for their propaganda or treat them like they’re worthy of any attention from a free country.
This contemptible cretin is here only because his country is a UN member and we’ve agreed to let even the worst among that bunch gather here and pollute that chamber of horrors with their poison.
Precisely, Bruce, and well put. You simply don’t have a legitimacy to a person like that, by allowing him to speak at one of your more venerated institutions. It simply doesn’t work. President Bollenger was correct, if a little late with his comments, yesterday day. The best time to share those comments was publicly, and without letting the animal anywhere near Columbia.
Oh, and Ezra? don’t give me any of your nonsense about “free speech” when we’re talking about a campus that forbids ROTC on campus. This is not about freedom of expression of ideas, it’s about which ideas get expressed . As I said the other evening:
The right to Free speech, as Tom Jefferson and the boys thought of it, was with regards to citizens being able to speak their mind without legal action by the government, preventing it, or punishing such speech. Free speech had nothing to do with someone from a foreign government supporting genocide, without repercussions from the citizenry…. the latter of which is in reality what Colombia is pushing, here. The purpose for free speech was to allow us to defend ourselves… to fight against tyrants so as to prevent human atrocities, the like of which Ahmadinejad both represents, and urgently requires to achieve his goals… not to sit and politely applaud. that the muckties of Columbia, and their defenders, do not know the difference, suggests that the educational values of Columbia university and others with it went off the rails years ago. Not only have a broken faith with American values, but they have broken faith with humanity.
President Bollinger’s comments only partially mitigated the offense of his school.
The offense I’m talking about, which is allowing such an animal to speak, is that the propaganda in his own country is what this speech is all about. If he manages to swing a couple of people away from pro U.S. sentiment within the United States, all to the better. Of course, there are people like Klein, who will gladly oblige him. And, Scott Erb, and the Kossacks, of course. But the real issue, the real reason he’s here, is the reaction to him within the Middle East. And what kind of opportunity for opposing views to suppose is going to be available there?
Tags: Democrats, Idiots, iran, Middle East Affairs, Moonbats
