Hitler Lives

I've been comparing ian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler for years. It's a well-deserved comparison. So I was delighted to hear Columbia University President Bollinger tell Ahmadinejad that the Hitler wannabee exhibits "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," and question the ian leader's record on human rights and his statements that the Holocaust was a myth.

I also found myself largely in agreement with my esteemed RedState colleague, Pejman Yousefzadeh, who writes that it is good that Ahmadinejad was forced to deal with boos, hisses, denunciations and derisive laughter in response to his propaganda and lies. Nevertheless, Reuters reports the ian tyrant got his talking points in:

Ahmadinejad also insisted in a forum at Columbia University 's nuclear program was purely peaceful. Challenged over his past comments that Israel should be wiped off the map and questioning the Holocaust, he said his concern was why the Palestinians were suffering.

[. . .]

Bollinger asked a string of tough questions, most of which Ahmadinejad ignored in a 30-minute speech which dwelt at length on science as a gift from God and the importance of using knowledge and learning purely and in a pious way.

Answering questions about his views on the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad said there were no absolutes in academia, and "a different perspective" was necessary given the impact on the Middle East of those events.

"I'm not saying that it didn't happen at all," he said. "I said, granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people."

Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of human rights in his country, notably persecution of homosexuals: "In we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said, sparking loud laughter from the audience. "In we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you we have it."

Providing the ian the Columbia soapbox lends the junior Hitler more legitimacy for his poison and admirers.

Bollinger and John Coatsworth, Columbia's interim dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, defended Columbia's invitation to Ahmadinejad, saying it would provide a forum for free speech and healthy debate. The event did provide a forum for Ahmadinejad, but there was no debate, there was merely an exchange of insults and a recitation of ian propaganda. Wherefore, I respectfully disagree with Pejman and submit that it was not a good thing that Columbia provided the evil madman from a now diminished but still valued, at least by Ahmadinejad, platform.

You can watch Bollinger's introductory tongue lashing of Ahmadinejad in this video:

Comments

[jay hariton]

There was only ONE Hitler. The thug from Iran is no Hitler.

[fouse, gary c]

Ahmadinejad in America- A Suggestion

About 50 years or so ago, when Chief William Parker was building the Los Angeles Police Department into the finest police department in America, they used to regularly get calls from eastern police departments, such as New York and Philadelphia with requests for surveillance of known organized crime figures who were flying to LA. The LAPD was regularly asked to be present at LA Airport and place the arriving hoods under surveillance during their stay in LA in order to determine who they were meeting with and what they were doing. The LAPD basically complied with half of the requested action. They would meet the plane and promptly place the bad guys on the next returning flight back east. The message was simple: Mafia hoodlums were not welcome in LA.

Well, today with our courts, liberal judges and the ACLU, these practices are no longer permitted. But it raises an interesting question given the visit this week of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadiniejad, who came here under the auspices of the United Nations and stayed a while to speak at Columbia University, as well as attend a dinner with such media figures as NBC's Brian Williams, who positively gushed over the chance to rub elbows with this loon.

In the wake of Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia, I suggested in a previous blog that we should have escorted the Iranian dictator from the airport to the UN and right back to the airport for a return flight home. As you know, we are bound by our UN commitments to let any foreign head of state come to New York to address the UN. Unfortunately, that has allowed such odious types as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and now Ahmadinejad to loiter around and appear before our own adoring leftists. Kudos to the City of New York for not granting this bum permission to defile our hollowed Ground Zero in New York during his visit. Unfortunately, Columbia University could not live up to the standards of the city in which it is located. But what do you expect from an American university?

Personally, I would have preferred that the State Department refuse his visa in defiance of the UN. What would the UN (a corrupt and inefficient organization made up largely of corrupt dictatorships that are hostile to the US) have done in response? In the past, the UN has threatened to leave New York in response to our refusal to allow some of our adversaries entry rights. Oh please! Wouldn't that be a great set-up, kind of like OJ Simpson being lured into a Las Vegas hotel to steal back his sports memorabilia?

Either scenario strikes me as favorable to what transpired this week. Either deny his visa and tell the UN to leave if they don't like it-or give Mr Ahmadinejad a quick turn-around (Teheran - New York, a 2 hour trip to the UN and back to JFK for the return flight home. In other words, let this third world nose-picker from a 3rd rate country learn what real jet lag feels like.

But I did not get my way, alas. What resulted is that, thanks to our left-wing academia and news media, Ahmadinejad scored a PR victory for the screaming mobs back home in Greater Lunaticstan.

gary fouse
fousesquawk

[Peter]

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