This is, by the way, their entire report. They never mention Bollinger by name. Nor do the Iranian people ever hear that Bollinger called him a "petty and cruel dictator". What they have heard is that Americans gave him a standing ovation, that they repeatedly applauded his approach to "international crises", and that he participated in a Q&A session.
Iran has conducted a quiet war against the United States ever since November 1979. They have supported Hezbollah when it killed 241 Marines in Lebanon, kidnapped dozens in Beirut and killed some of the hostages, and now supply weapons and training to terrorists in Iraq who kill our soldiers there. Instead of shunning such a man and such a nation, Bollinger let him conduct a propaganda campaign on his campus.
If Bollinger finds alternative points of view so appealing, then I assume that the ROTC will be invited back to Columbia's campus forthwith. After all, Columbia offered an invitation to a man whose nation kills our troops. If the American military can't gain access to engage students for the defense of our nation, then Bollinger and the Columbia administration has made clear which alternatives it finds acceptable, and which they do not.
The truth has a way of getting out. Dictator’s can hold the lid on for only so long, especially in this age of the radio and the internet.
Do those crazy iranians think he was in South America?
I must admit, I never expected to hear Bollinger call this despot a “petty and cruel dictator”, or take his positions to task. So he gets a few points higher on the “drooling P.C. liberal dolt” scale, but he’s still a drooling P.C. liberal dolt at best.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And anyone who thought it would be different from that is a fool, including Bollinger.
Wow...the Iranian media lies about as much as our own!
As if the Iranians will see even a second of the appearance that made their President look like a deranged idiot dictator. Whet they will see will be so highly edited it will look like he gave a Churchillian speech with endless applause. Sort of like the CBS News coverage.
Somebody asked me yesterday why not let him speak.
Now we read how the event is being glowingly reported in the middle-east , how monkey-boy took on the big bad USA among sympathetic intellectuals at a major Amercian university.
In the eyes of our enemies the event gave this dangerous lunatic prestige and status.
It also looks like there may have been some Iranian mischief at play during the broadcast.
From Pajamas Media: Mahmoud's Manhattan Moment.
1) VOA Television nightly services on HotBird and TeleStar 12 satellites were disrupted in Tehran for about 20 minutes, as soon as he was to be introduced at Colombia university’s podium. Iranian citizens did not hear the criticism of Ahmadinejad by Columbia President Bollinger. The way the Islamic Republic does this is to scramble the signals of these satellites locally, using stationary and mobile microwave dishes.
2) It has been rumored from iside Iran that one of the conditions for Iranian-Aermican Haleh Esfandiari’s release from Evin Prison was for Ahmadinejad to give his speech at Colombia University and to visit to Ground Zero. Ahmadinejad’s speech at Colombia was canceled last year.
When they show the video in Iran it will be dubbed like the Hillary speech at the NY Fire Fighters gathering in 2000. All Cheers!
Uh-yeah. Imagine what Chris would have been saying had a Republican made such remarks.
I’ve got two questions for Bollinger: What’s the difference between Al Qaeda and Hezbollah? And what’s Bollinger going to do for an encore, invite Bin Laden?
The other C-SPAN station at the same time was even worse...John Edwards talking about his health care proposals...
My thoughts:
Bollinger’s statements were right on, but they will never get played in Iran and the whole thing will be edited to Ima-whackjob’s advantage. The stupid liberals at Columbia University were convenient tools for Iran.
It’s one thing to value “freedom of speech” - but that’s clearly not the case at the University because they don’t treat conservative speech the same.
It was disgusting that this nutjob gets all this attention in our country - he should have been arrested - or at the very least, held hostage for 444 days.
The only bright spot that I can see about the whole thing is that maybe a few more Americans will get to see the stupid liberal students that gave whackjob a standing ovation. One more nail on the radical liberal coffin! After the move-on ad and now this - moderate Americans will be shaking their heads in disgust & disbelief. They may have satisfied their far left base - but I have to believe they alienated a lot of people that are currently riding the fence in the middle.
Just like with Hillary - you give a liberal enough rope - they will hang themselves everytime. I just know there are a lot of attacks on the horizon, holding back right now until the time is right - when Hillary is the dem nominee.
Columbia University=Useful Idiots
Last night, Bill O’Reilly tried to get Suzy “Medea” Benjamin to admit that Hezbollah was a terrorist organization.
She wouldn’t say it. That is the real threat to America, IMHO.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/rotc/
For 250 years Columbia University has produced many of the great leaders and thinkers of our time. It has strong historical ties to this nation, having been transformed amid the turmoil of the Revolutionary War from Kings College to the institution we now know as Columbia. From Colonel Alexander Hamilton to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, examples of national service and military leadership abound among Columbia’s alumni.
The Reserve Officers Training Corps and other military educational assistance programs provide students with the opportunity to continue that tradition of leadership and scholarship through preparation for a career as a military officer.
ROTC is available to provide students with scholarships and financial aid while concurrently affording the students some of the finest leadership and management training in the country.