Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stevemcgarrett]

Columbia University is an Ivy League institution of higher learning but nothing its President, Lee Bollinger, said or did when introducing the Iranian President yesterday would lead one to believe that. He came across like a community college president instead.

It's a given that Ahmadinejad is a lout, a rabble rouser, a bigot, and a dissembling puppet of a theocratic regime. It's also irrelevant to the issue at hand.

What is highly relevant but overlooked is that Ahmadinejad, like most "petty dictators," understands intimately the power of propoganda to drive foreign policy. It is a lesson that few American leaders--Nixon and Reagan notwithstanding--have fully appreciated.

So it should come as no surprise that Bollinger underestimated the Iranian President when it invited him to speak. Bollinger played right into Ahmadinejad's hand, not so much by inviting him to speak, but by playing the role of the ungracious host.

For no matter how utterly contemptible Ahmadinejad is, he was still an invited guest of the university administration and the leading representative of his country. Those two essential points were lost on Bollinger, but not evidently on Iranian public opinion, however state manipulated its media might be. Indeed, Bollinger himself came across as a lout.

I would argue that Bollinger's classless posturing was all too predictable. Bollinger is a quintessential American liberal who believes that he has moral authority on his side and therefore can condemn others as he sees fit. As a liberal of a campus infused with politically correct codes of conduct, he also views it as his legal obligation to call out anyone who poses a potential threat to the accepted academic view of modern society.

So the college president rails against the Iranian leader and all he supposedly stands for and never deigns to give his guest a proper introduction. In doing so, he not only misses the opportunity to contrast himself to Ahmadinejad by showing his greater tolerance but provides the latter with the verbal weaponry he needed to show the Third World how arrogant and self-serving the "imperialist" West really is.

And the truth of the matter is that in most of the world Bollinger's behavior has been received with disdain, if not disbelief. How can someone of his stature and well-groomed education resort to bullying of a guest? But that is precisely what he did. And even in response, the Iranian President was measured in tone and justifiably indignant without saying it in so many words.

I found Bollinger rather pathetic: first he invites the man out of some noble personal crusade to air differing views--what any prestigious university must do--and to celebrate "diversity of opinion" in the marketplace of ideas. But instead he recoils at the backlash among his students and the community it serves and tries to redeem himself by coming across as brave in the face of tyranny.

Had he left well enough alone--let the students ask the questions and probe the Iranian President for more than just pat responses--or posed a question of his own for the latter to address at the outset of his talk, he might have exploited this rare public opportunity appropriately. Instead he came across like an "angry young man" who can't control his impulse to blurt out his true feelings. And in the process he gave the impression of intolerance--the very stance he condemned in Ahmadinejad.

What are your thoughts on this fiasco?

[Dome Vans]

fiasco

[catman]

"There are no homosexuals in Iran"

Heard that about Korea as well.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

[thiophene]

I thought it was childish, something I would do, not somehting I'd want the president of my uni to do. While the invite was positive, the attack was just embarrassing.

And why do executioners cover their faces, if it's something you support, something the government apparently supports, why cover your face? I don't get it.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

What they ought to have done is allowed Iran's president to speak and then had a question and answer session afterwards. They ought to have invited Christopher Hitchens to do the questioning.

[igotthisguitar]

The head of Columbia spoke shamefully.

SHOW SOME FUC&IN CLASS!

meathead

btw - Why isn't this some kind of more formal ( hopefully a little better than CNN-style ) poll?

Ahmadinejad clearly wins here ... if only by default

[Big_Bird]

I totally agree with you, SM. I almost felt embarassed for him. Very badly handled. He made himself look a total arse.

[wannago]

At the risk of sounding like I'm defending Columbia's prez (whose actions are indefensible), I will say that he was in a no-win situation. Because of all the railing done before this Iranian turd came, to have said nothing critical would have invited cries of Columbia being too easy on Yabbadabbajihad. Now, what Columbia's president said was obviously over the top, but he was left with only two choices...both of them bad.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Big_Bird]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

[The Perfect Cup of Coffee]

If you're looking for sober logic and constructive arguments, this board sure as hell ain't the place. Just roll with it. This place is like a zoo.

[mindmetoo]

Each side won. Each side lost. Amadinnerjacket can go back, play edited clips , making it seem like he took 'em to school. America got a chance to laugh in his face. Would he ever expect to be laughed at in Iran?

[jinju]

The OP is basically one big rip off of an article in Time or newsweek. Steve, do you have an original bone in your body?http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1665018,00.html

Your profs, if you ever went to university, would have flunked you for this shameless plagiarism