... or Inferno?
The president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, and President Ahmadinejad met Monday on a field of rhetorical battle at Columbia.
Mr. Bollinger opened the proceedings, to which he had invited Mr. Ahmadinejad, by presenting a series of sharply-worded questions.
Mr. Bollinger, normally a genial, soft spoken man who is always courteous and deferential to his guests, was in a totally different mode. His voice was hectoring and bullying. He included in his litany of questions provocative and insulting statements about his guest.
Mr. Bollinger's change of style was, I believe, to blunt the enormous criticism that ensued following Columbia's invitation to Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak there. In his defense, Mr. Bollinger's supporters constantly invoke the concepts of free speech and the First Amendment. But in this case they simply don't apply.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
No government action was taken to stop Columbia University and Mr. Bollinger from extending the invitation and holding the event as they did. I watched it on television, 600 people watched it from within the auditorium and thousands of Columbia students sat outside watching and listening to a giant TV screen.
The right of free speech — Messrs. Bollinger and Ahmadinejad were exercising it before, during, and after this controversy — was never in question. What was in question was Mr. Bollinger's judgment. Why provide the President of Iran — who supports terrorism and whose government provides bombs to Iraqi insurgents and terrorists who use them to kill American soldiers — with the prestigious platform at a great American university?
Isn't it a fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad has been and will continue to be interviewed by journalists every day during his stay in America? What he got at Columbia was a special platform where he could, in an academic setting, disseminate his views to the world.
Yes, the attention of the world, particularly the Islamic world, was focused on Columbia and Mr. Ahmadinejad. And what did they see? They saw the university's president, Mr. Bollinger, who had invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to his school, do what should never be done — insult the person who is a guest in your home, office, or shared podium and stage.
Mr. Bollinger said to Mr. Ahmadinejad, "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," adding, "You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated." Mr. Bollinger went on, "It's well-documented that Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism." The final insult was, "I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions." Mr. Ahmadinejad understood this immediately and referred to Mr. Bollinger's insults in his speech, saying, "I shall not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment."
I am distressed that the heart of Mr. Bollinger's objections related to Israel and Mr. Ahmadinejad's call for its destruction. Of course, that is important, especially to Jews and certainly to me, and to the world as well. But I would have preferred a question on Mr. Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of America. Mr. Bollinger could have said, "With respect to the U.S., shortly after your election in October 2005, you called for a global jihad aimed at destroying the U.S., saying ‘Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?' You went on to say, ‘You should know that this slogan can certainly be achieved.'"
Mr. Bollinger gave Mr. Ahmadinejad ammunition to be used among Islamic supporters that the battle at Columbia was primarily a battle between Islam and the Jews, and Mr. Ahmadinejad had stood up to the mocking of Mr. Bollinger.
Every meeting Mr. Ahmadinejad addresses in Iran starts and ends with the cry, "Death to America!" Mr. Bollinger should have asked Mr. Ahmadinejad about his role in the Iranian hostage taking of American consular officials during the Carter administration. Barry Rosen, one of the hostages held for 444 days and released on January 20, 1981, the day President Reagan was inaugurated, recently wrote, "Ahmadinejad was one of those outrageous Iranians who took me and more than 50 other Americans hostage for 444 days, violating international law and making us suffer indescribable moments of terror." If Mr. Ahmadinejad were not protected by diplomatic immunity, he could be arrested for a host of terrorist and criminal activities.
As important as it was to stand up for the rights of homosexuals, who are hanged or stoned to death in Iran, standing up for America and the American soldiers being killed daily by Iranian-supplied bombs was particularly relevant and in need of greater emphasis than that given by Mr. Bollinger.
All in all, it was a fiasco for America and a blunder by Mr. Bollinger, as well as a coup for Mr. Ahmadinejad. His goal was not to respond to Mr. Bollinger, the Columbia students, or Americans seeing him on television. His goal was to talk over their heads to the Islamic world and its terrorists and show how he bearded the Columbia lion in its own den.
President Bollinger, as an encore, why not invite Hugo Chavez? I think he'd come. You could provide him with a platform to enhance his reputation.
Mr. Koch was mayor of New York between 1978 and 1989.
