Ahmadinejad, Man of Mystery?

According to an interview on FOX News, Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, who is hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tomorrow, says he would have hosted Hitler, too. This man seems to be of the school of thought that the best defense against the world’s monsters is to listen, but in reality folks like Bollinger do not listen, but instead foolishly ignore what the monsters have clearly and repeatedly said.

I am dubious of the idea that we will learn something from the exercise of hosting a man like Ahmadinejad, any more than we would have from hosting Hitler. People who imagine we will learn a great deal from hosting such speakers forget that Hitler, like Ahmadinejad, was 100 percent open about his views and plans, hardly a man of mystery. What was there to learn, of relevance to his enemies in the fight against him, that he did not clearly reveal in Mein Kampf? (Other than strategy and logistical plans, which Ahmadinejad would be no more likely to reveal in a speech at Columbia than Hitler would have). Contrary to the idea that Hitler required a public platform in the U.S., the challenge should have been to shut him up and destroy him, not to give him another platform from which to promulgate his poison and lull those in denial into a false sense of security.

Given that we already know his views and plans, what does anyone expect to learn from Ahmadinejad in his talk at Columbia? The inner workings of his psyche? My guess is this will not be on display at Columbia, and that he will use the visit as a chance to create the impression he has a legitimate point of view.

This entry was written by Heather Robinson and posted on September 23, 2007 at 1:41 pm and filed under Blog. permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Keywords: Iran. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. */?>