I got a call from a Columbia student last night. She wanted me to invite me to my class's 43rd reunion and also incidentally donate $250 to a scolarship fund. She was a nice kid in a tough job but I said I had no intention of donating anything to Columbia after what (Columibia President Lee) Bollinger had done. He embarassed the university in front of the entire world. You don't invite the leader of another country to speak at your university and then deliver a crass and churlish diatribe by way of introduction. I told her that Bollinger had caved in under pressure. Columbia's Jewish donors had threatened to pull their support and cancel their gifts and endowments unless he uninvited Ahmadinejad.
Bollinger couldn't do that without looking like a spineless tool. So he did the next best thing. He maintained the invitation but then to placate irate donors he delivered a diatribe against Ahmadinejad, calling him a tryant and a petty dictator.
Ahmadinejad won that exchange. He took the insults with a smile. And although he later said some things that elicited gasps of disbelief (we don't have homosexuals in Iran), he came away a clear winner, not only in America, but also across the world. American looked intolerant, narrow minded and unable to tolerate other points of view--in short all the things we normally say about Iran.
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