Ah, Monday, September 24, was an odd day. The bad guy spoke at Columbia –
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University, where the school’s head introduced the hard-line leader by calling him a “petty and cruel dictator.”
He was in town for the UN stuff and had the time, and the school made the offer. There was even a question and answer section. The best part was when he was asked about the oppression of women and gays and these folks and those folk in Iran, and with a sort of wide-eyed innocence he looked puzzled and said there were no gay folks in Iran, none at all. We seem to have those in the West – but there are none in Iran. The audience laughed, and kept laughing, so he dug in and said, no really, there are just no gays in Iran, really. Sorry, but that’s our problem. The audience laughed even more. He didn’t get it. We’re not the only nation with a delusional leader in a bubble. See this photo of one of the hangings, of two teenagers – there are no gays because they hang them all. And that item links to this, which is pretty clear.
Alex Koppelman and Tracee Herbaugh offer an account of the event with a classic subheading –
The Iranian leader’s visit to Columbia provoked outcry, support and a twist on free speech: “We’re glad you’re here - so we can tell you you’re an asshole.”
They offer this setting –
On an ordinary day Columbia University is something of an oasis, a relatively tranquil place where it is possible to forget for a moment the surrounding noise and chaos that is New York City. That held true on Monday, even as the national media turned its attention on the visit to campus of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and as loud demonstrations took place at the United Nations Building in midtown Manhattan and around Columbia itself.
There were makeshift signs, both against and in support of Ahmadinejad’s appearance, scattered all over the campus area where a simulcast of his appearance was broadcast. Many students wore black shirts distributed for protesting the event. The front contained a quote from Edmund Burke, the 18th-century Irish conservative: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” The back read, “Stop Ahmadinejad’s EVIL, Columbia Students United AGAINST AHMADINEJAD.”
But they say the atmosphere was “respectful and quietly attentive” during the forum. Columbia president Lee C. Bollinger, who had taken a lot of crap publicly for opening the campus to Ahmadinejad, hosted – but his introductory remarks were nasty, a denunciation of sorts, after a nod to free speech and vigorous debate and all that. There were just a few issues - Iran’s execution of dissidents and children the man’s several denials of the Holocaust. Bollinger – “Today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for,” so take it away.
Koppelman and Herbaugh interview some students. You get the freshman with the Israeli flag on his back, saying he was protesting for one reason - “The reason closest to my heart is Israel. That’s why I’m wearing the flag.” But he was okay with the invitation – “I think is it good there is free speech so we can have the opportunity to protest what is such a terrible regime.”
Then you get the graduate student originally from Iran who has been here for four years, saying that he supported the invitation –
First of all, I think it’s a good idea for American people to see our president, to hear what he says. They have heard all the bad things of him; by getting more exposed they may see some of the good things he has done. Look, I come from a country where such a thing cannot happen. What I find disturbing is that I’m somewhere that claims we listen to all ideas, but really, when it comes to certain ideas, we don’t listen. We listen to people who do worse things than the Iranian president, but we don’t want to listen to the Iranian president - that’s when I have a problem.
By the way, it was one Ellen Miller, a sophomore at Barnard, who carried a sign that summed it up - “We’re glad you’re here - so we can tell you you’re an asshole.” She likes free speech.
So here’s the brief account –
Bollinger’s introductory speech prompted a standing ovation from many in the audience. It also seemed to surprise Ahmadinejad and put him on the defensive. After a recitation of verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy text, Ahmadinejad launched into his own criticism of Columbia’s head. The Q&A session that followed was equally contentious, with Ahmadinejad deflecting questions about his animosity toward Israel and the Iranian regime’s treatment of women and homosexuals.
Nothing really new here – the body of the speech was the same old stuff, softened for the venue.
But of course protests beyond the campus were not so sophisticated and academic –
Earlier in the day, around noon, a gathering filled much of a large block near the United Nations Building. The crowd included numerous students from Jewish day schools who had been bused in for the event. Most of them seemed to be viewing the demonstration as a field trip or chance to socialize.
But on the whole, the protest had a shrill tone. A flurry of neon-green signs depicted Ahmadinejad, in his trademark suit jacket and open shirt, with his mouth open and his arms, legs, feet and clenched fists elongated and twisted into the form of a swastika. Red tape formed a diagonal line over him. A large banner held by protesters near the front of the crowd read, “We will NOT Forget the Holocaust or 9/11!”
And you had your politicians on the scene, particularly the Democrats – Senator Menendez of New Jersey, and from the House, Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney of New York. They ripped into the guy and said both the United Nations and Columbia should never have let the Iranian president speak. The college kids saw no problem. These three did. It was very odd. Another New York congressman, Elliot Engel, told the crowd that the United Nations had discredited itself by having Ahmadinejad speak, and that instead Ahmadinejad should have been arrested for terrorism “once he set foot inside New York City.” He’s also a Democrat. Nadler whipped up the crowd with this – “I never thought another man would arise who it would be fair to compare to Adolf Hitler.” Well, these folks face reelection, and their careers are on the line. The college kids aren’t running for anything. That must be the difference here. Free speech isn’t a winner on the campaign trail. Thank goodness there were no Republicans at that rally – but we’re talking midtown east in Manhattan, at the UN, with the kids from the Jewish day schools. You expected Republicans?
The oddest thing in the Koppelman and Herbaugh reporting was their account of a small group of counter-protesters assembled at the end of the crowd, the ultra-Orthodox Jews who believe Israel has no right to exist until the coming of the Messiah, and hey, he’s not here yet. No, Jesus was a nice man and all, but he wasn’t the Messiah. You have to wait a bit more. They carried signs for the website “Jews United against Zionism” – see that site for a picture from the event. One sign read, “‘Israel’ has no right to take over any part of the Holy Land,” and another, showing an Israeli flag crossed out, read, “Judaism condemns Zionist provocations against Iran.” The world is a confusing place.
And none of this was made any less confusing by the White House saying the speech and question and answer session at Columbia was just fine – a good thing – but this particular fellow visiting “Ground Zero” to lay a wreath and say what happened was awful, would be a travesty. Actually Condoleezza Rice said that on the financial channel CNBC, amid all the chitchat about oil prices and free trade and the falling dollar and stock prices. It was enough to make you head spin. No one was where they should have been, nor saying what they usually say.
Some of us turn to the First Amendment and constitutional attorney Glenn Greenwald for perspective. Yes he’s gay and lives most of the time in Brazil, but things were already surreal.
He puts it this way –
All of the hysteria over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speaking at Columbia University is so tiresome for so many reasons, beginning with the fact that it is all rather transparently motivated by exactly what Juan Cole says: “The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state.”
See Cole, the Middle East expert at the University of Michigan, here for that. The American right has decided that, and as Greenwald notes, “all of the ensuing hysteria is rooted in the fantasy world they occupy in which Iran is our Enemy at War. By their nature, such fantasies cannot be reasoned with.”
And Greenwald rightly notes that the desire to prevent people from speaking when they express views that one finds offensive “is just always baffling” –
Other than converting the individual into a martyr and dramatically elevating their importance, what do people think is accomplished when a person with a certain viewpoint is denied a forum?
Heck, just the fuss made Ahmadinejad a hero in much of the world. He didn’t “win” by speaking, but the coverage of everyone who wanted him silenced did the trick. And it was predictable –
Exactly as is true for the First Amendment, it is so often the case that those who claim to believe in this principle when it comes to ideas they like suddenly find all sorts of reasons why the “principle” does not apply when it comes to ideas they hate most. And - as is true for Osama bin Laden - nobody has done more to inflate the importance and power of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who, just by the way, is not even the leader of Iran, let alone the WorldWide Evil Axis of Hitlerian Dictators) than those who have focused on him obsessively.
He’s not the leader of Iran? No, he isn’t –
Political analysts here say they are surprised at the degree to which the West focuses on their president, saying that it reflects a general misunderstanding of their system.
Unlike in the United States, in Iran the president is not the head of state nor the commander in chief. That status is held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, whose role combines civil and religious authority. At the moment, this president’s power comes from two sources, they say: the unqualified support of the supreme leader, and the international condemnation he manages to generate when he speaks up.
“The United States pays too much attention to Ahmadinejad,” said an Iranian political scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “He is not that consequential.”
Well, we’ve made him that consequential now. Nice move. The right takes its cue from the president – keep it simple.
Of course what disturbs Greenwald even more is this report in The New York Sun – Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver wants to punish Columbia for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak –
As the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, prepares to address Columbia University today amid a storm of student protest, state and city lawmakers say they are considering withholding public funds from the school to protest its decision to invite the leader to campus.
In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia’s insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.
Lawmakers warned about other consequences for Columbia and its president, Lee Bollinger, who has resisted campus and public pressure to cancel Mr. Ahmadinejad’s appearance today, arguing that Columbia’s commitment to scholarship requires the school to directly confront offensive ideas.
“There are issues that Columbia may have before us that obviously this cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall,” Mr. Silver said. “Obviously, there’s some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of… knowing that this is that kind of an institution”
… “It’s not going to go away just because this episode ends. Columbia University has to know .that they will be penalized,” an assemblyman of Brooklyn, Dov Hikind, who also attended the rally, said. The lawmaker said Mr. Ahmadinejad should be arrested when he sets foot on campus.
To Greenwald, Silver “sounds like two-bit hooligan making not-so-veiled threats to Columbia.” To others, the Fox News set, he sound like a patriot. Remember Bill O’Reilly and his boycott of France that destroyed their economy? No? He said he’d destroy Canada the same way. Silver sounds like a thug, in much the same way.
But the big picture –
What this really illustrates more than anything else is the true danger to our national character and basic liberties from being in a permanent state of war fighting. When we become a society that just leaps from one New Ultimate Hitler Enemy Who Must Be Destroyed to the next, we ensure that all of our political values and institutions become infected by this bloodthirsty mentality. When we have one Enemy after the next to annihilate, who really cares about dreary luxuries like due process or restraints on government power or the First Amendment? Saddam/binLaden/Ahemdinijad/Assad is Evil, a Hitler, and all power must be vested without limits in our Leaders so they can destroy him/them.
Yes, but it plays well in Peoria, as Greenwald discusses in his assessment of this interview of Ahmadinejad by Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” regarding the proposed “Ground Zero” visit. It’s just a series of How dare you, sir?” taunts, ending with a classic – “Mr. President, you must have rejoiced more than anyone when Saddam Hussein fell. You owe President Bush. This is one of the best things that’s ever happened to your country.”
Right. It’s this way –
Apparently, among the American press now, it is unchallengably true that the Iranian Government has the Blood of American Soliders on its hands and is a “terrorist state.” I guess our “journalists” have decided that “only a fool - or possibly a Frenchman - could conclude otherwise.”
Greenwald is quoting Richard Cohen of the Washington Post there, and adds –
Skepticism of government officials? Media objectivity? First Amendment freedoms? Due Process and Habeas Corpus and diplomacy? Ahmadinejad is Hitler, Our Enemy, and We are at War - with him and forever. That’s all we really need to know.
Time for some scotch. We’re screwed.
