I penned this a while ago. I know its an old story but just for the record.......
Lee Bollinger acted extremely discourteously towards Ahmedinejad. His introduction was a disgrace and the President of Iran displayed tremendous magnanimity in not walking off the stage. But Bollinger, as someone pointed out, dare not risk the financial security of Columbia.
Despite the rehearsed insinuations, Bollinger would never dare to open a speech by George Bush in similar fashion, eg.
“Mr. Bush, you have been invited to this university to express views that are repugnant not only to the majority of students and academics of this institution of higher learning, but to the vast majority of the world. You exhibit the traits of a liar and a warmonger who has brought tremendous suffering to millions of people in the Middle East and beyond, a suffering to which you appear utterly oblivious. Nor do you appear to learn from your errors, normally a sign of basic intelligence amongst humans. Furthermore, you mangle the English language, get your facts (especially geography) wrong with alarming frequency and have plunged America into a financial, military and moral abyss. Now you will have the opportunity to confront an audience that has not been hand picked by your advisors and I wish you luck”
Finally, to those who would tape the mouths of everyone who questions the Jewish holocaust (the lower case “h” is deliberate - there have been many holocausts), do you work yourself into a frenzy when Turkish officials visit the United States? They all deny the Armenian holocaust. In fact, Turkey is made up of roughly 50 million holocaust deniers. And besides, what blood does Ahmedinejad have on his hands compared to Ariel Sharon, a regular undisturbed visitor to American shores until he entered cabbagedom?
