Ahmadinejad Lies; Now There's a Story

As we all know by now Columbia University hosted one of the most raving lunatics of our age. Mahmud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, was invited to besiege us with his lies, contradictions and more lies.

Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger gave a stinging introduction. "Mr. President you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator, and so I ask you, why have…so many become targets of persecution in your country…Why are you so afraid of citizens expressing ideas for change?"

Bollinger then asked Ahmadinejad for permission to lead a delegation to Iran to address their students about free speech.

Bollinger moved to the holocaust, castigating Ahmadinejad for his insistence in denying the holocaust. "When you come to a place like this you look ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated. Will you cease this outrage?" Bollinger asked.

Bollinger scored high points in my book for chutzpah, low points for wisdom though I understand the mind of the liberal academic in inviting this man.

Ahmadinejad led off his own soliloquy by chastising Bollinger saying that in Iran, they don't comment on a speech making assumptions before they have heard what was said. (That may be true--for anyone saying anything derogatory would have already been executed…)

Predictably, Ahmadinejad's laughable remark was greeted with loud applause. If I were Bollinger, I would have to seriously think about the result my educational institution was producing in the minds of tomorrow's leaders. The student body's affirmation of this murderer was tell tale but I am sure few noted the connection.

I didn't hear all of the presentation; I didn't need to. When Ahmadinejad was asked about his views concerning Israel, he set the stage meaningless words and what was to come.

The questioner asked, "Do you or your government seek the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state." Mind you, Ahmadinejad, is on record time and time again vehemently and categorically calling for the annihilation of Israel. Yet he answered after the fashion of our own candidates running for office whose lies are so preposterous you wonder why anyone believes them. Ahmadinejad said, "We love all nations; we are friends with the Jewish people."

What more does anyone need to hear? Words so often mean nothing and that is not unique to the streets of Iran. Just last week in the Dartmouth debate Hillary Clinton was asked by Tim Russert if she agreed with her husband's position that in extreme circumstances torture of a terrorist might be justified to obtain for example, the location of a bomb that had been placed. Not only did she utterly lie stating the opposite of her previously recorded view but essentially blamed the United States for the tension and woes of the terrorists

He that lies in a little thing will lie in a great thing, and the one who lies in a great thing will also lie in a little thing. The ravages of sin are not relegated to dictator run countries; we just present them with more perfume and finery.