Ahmadinejad to Visit U.N., Columbia, NOT Ground Zero!
The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has no justification to go anywhere near the site of our greatest national tragedy. The driving force behind state sponsored terrorism, self proclaimed enemy of America and the man harboring bin Laden’s son, he represents the very Jihadist mentality behind the 9/11 attacks. His request to lay a wreath would only be played out in Al Jazeera as honoring the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks.
The United Nations is the circus crated specifically for such clowns. This is the organization that kicked the United States off of it’s Human Rights Commission in 2001 while admitting Pakistan, Sudan and Sierra Leone. Ahmadinejad spoke to the General Assembly last year and will be doing so again while in New York on Tuesday. In spite of the fact we are its host, this is the premiere forum for denouncing our foreign policy. So much so that the Democratic Senate decided that John Bolton’s stringent advocacy of U.S. interests had no place in the U.N.
Monday, Columbia University will be hosting Ahmadinejad. The self proclaimed bastion of free speech vehemently defends its invitation to have the Iranian President speak despite public outrage over his appearance. Here is a world leader who supports terrorism, calls for the destruction of Israel, denies the Holocaust and presides over a nation where women can be stoned to death for suspected infidelity. Should he be allowed to speak? A better question may be is Columbia University the rightful barer of the “Free Speech” banner?
When Minutemen Organization co-founder Jim Gilchrist spoke at the Columbia a mob of students rushed the stage and sabotaged the event. Security was non-existent and the speaker was forced from the stage. What they claim to be free speech is only tolerated if they deem it correct speech.
Monday will tell if those calling Ahmadinejad to task for his egregious acts will have the same access to the microphone as those hoping to elicit endless anti-Bush rhetoric. Either way, there will be a challenge to Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric or Columbia’s intellectual credentials or perhaps both. Somebody will get bruised by this event.
While past events at Columbia have shown a decided liberal bias, particularly when it involves Bush Administration policy or procedure, this involves a tyrant with undeniable credentials. University President Lee Bollinger has promised to introduce Ahmadinejad himself leading with questions regarding his statements about the Holocaust, the destruction of Israel and his support of terrorist groups. Ahmadinejad’s actions and statements are so at odds with basic American values that it is had to imagine them going uncontested.
If Ahmadinejad confirms what many of us know about him on Monday it will come out during a discourse at Columbia University and not the White House front lawn. Hopefully this forum will bring a wider audience to realize the threat Iran poses rather than discredit it as more nationalistic Bush rhetoric. If the forum fails to bring out the facts about this threat to the U.S. and the world and the prospect of Iran possessing nuclear weapons, then perhaps the alumni at Columbia and its supporters will be convinced of the biases that plague this prestigious university. Either way it will be a learning experience! [ro_14]