The Madam and the Madman.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was once president ... of Columbia University. Think about that for a minute. This is a man whom marched Germans through the encampments at Dachau so as to expose the 20th century's greatest atrocity to the very citizens who served as its host. And now his successor, Madam President Lee Bollinger, has welcomed with open arms the preeminent Holocaust denier of our time.

Let us start with this. The "President" of Iran kicked off his political activism by leaving school and participating in the seizing of a US Embassy and her citizens in 1979 in a little incident referred to as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Then with the commencement of the Iran/Iraq war he left university life and volunteered for the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He served in the intelligence and special operations division where his "talents" were proven and he rose to become a senior commander in the elite "Qods" brigade, ( a word used for Jerusalem which literally translates as "holy"). This group specialized in Iran's quote, "Extra-territorial Operations." He directed and even personally participated in dissident suppression, assassinations, bombings, infiltration and an assortment of wet work throughout the world. One of his most famous targets was none other than Salman Rushdie, an operation that failed. It should also be noted that his command period of Iranian covert forces covers the time frame in which 241 Marines were murdered in their Beirut barracks by Hezbollah. He later became involved in politics as an "advisor", then returned to University teaching, in civil engineering no less, until he was appointed mayor of Tehran in 2003 - a position from which he launched his successful bid for the presidency.

As "president' he has headlined conferences such as "A World Without Zionism" in which he declared that Israel, "should be wiped off the map." Other "conferences" (stress the "con") he has either hosted or played a meaningful role in were investigatory in nature. "Investigating" whether or not the Holocaust occurred. And lets just say that his conclusions held a slight difference to that say of the Nuremberg judges. He accused the West of quote, "living the myth of the Holocaust." This along with mass suppression of his own people, religious trials, secret police, disappearances of political and religious rivals, state run and edited television and newspapers, and oh ya, his pursuit of nuclear armament in which he described the Wests attempts at thwarting as "a matchstick against a flood."

And did I mention, his particular brand of Islam is considered "ultra-conservative" ... by other Muslims. It is Hojjatieh Shi’ism, in which the faithful believe that the return of the 12th Imam, destined to rule in a state of grace enforcing the law of Muhammad, can only return to earth after a period of "universal chaos." Sort of like that chief demon on Ghost Busters - he could only be set free after the capacitator erupted, you get the picture.

Now that we have a fairly round picture of the man, lets turn back to Columbia University for a moment. The current president of this once proud institution has ejected the ROTC off of "her" campus. And even though she runs the risk of then losing all federal funding, she has chosen to take this "principled" stand because of the military's "don't ask don't tell policy" towards homosexuals. I see, the military is too bigoted towards gays to allow their presence on campus .... last week nine men were put to death in Iran for being gay. Does anyone else feel like their hair is on fire here? Also, within the same federal court district that Columbia resides a federal judge has just last week awarded 2.6 billion dollars to the family members of the 19 US Servicemen whom were murdered in the Khobar Tower attacks in Saudi Arabia. And who was the defending party found responsible to that astounding monetary tune? The government of Iran.

And lets not forget - US Military commanders have testified to the US Congress under oath that Iranian made munitions and explosives are killing our boys in theater as we speak.

Has American academia gone mad?

To allow this torturing, despotic, antisemitic, Holocaust denying, genocidal terrorist to be introduced to the thunder of applause in an American University is enabling the worst type of propaganda and endorsing the worst notions of human nature. 6 million plus souls cry out from their fiery graves in chorus with Marines in Arlington to say with one voice, NO!

And to that extent I thought that the least I owe those perished souls was to lend voice to their silent cries and call Columbia myself. Call Madam Bollinger herself, and voice my opinion. I hope you will do the same. Her mail box was full, but if you wait 30 seconds, a back up voice mail takes over. After having gathered my thoughts briefly on paper I sat down and dialed 212-854-9970 and said to this woman, " How do you do? I am calling to express my outrage at your appalling decision to provide the President of Iran, a man whom actively seeks to kill the defenders of our freedoms whilst denying that a Jew ever died at the hands of a Nazi, the platform of an American university for which to spew his vile advocations of genocide."

The intellectual wilderness these neo-leftists are lost in is one for which I think there is no return to sanity.
FR



(source citation for the Iranian "president":
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/ahmadinejad.htm)