Columbia & Ahmadinejad Gnat on buffalo butt - The sequel

A few days ago I commented on all the media hoopla lavished on the Iranian despot. Also in that post, I mentioned that while I fully agree with Columbia U's right to invite such a guest to speak, it was a grave diplomatic error. And once the invitation was extended, they were damned if they went thru with it, and damned if they didn't. They locked themselves into the corner of the ring with no exit until the KO happened.

Comes today's op-ed piece by Howard Galganov in the Israeli Insider that waxes eloquent my very statements.

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To the self-absorbed academic leaders of Columbia and their infantile Leftist students, they KNEW that they would get out of Ahmadinejad in open debate, what the rest of the world could not.

Because of their absolute belief in their own power of reason and persuasion, they would teach Ahmadinejad a lesson.

Instead, Ahmadinejad showed them to be the fools they are.

When the backlash hit the leaders of Columbia for inviting this vile piece of work, and the realization sank in that there was going to be a price to pay for being so stupid, it didn't take much time for the academics to prove that they were even that much more stupid than they already were.

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Having Ahmadinejad as a Columbia guest speaker was the perfect podium for him to speak to his people back home. It didn't matter what the rest of the world thought about his speech and Q&A, since it only mattered how it was conveyed to the people Ahmadinejad leads.

As poorly as Columbia handled this mess, is as good as Ahmadinejad took advantage of it. The crass remarks put forward by Ahmadinejad's host, Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, simply reinforced the Iranian image of the Ugly American.

Absolutely... Columbia administrators were pompous fools to believe any words from Ahmadinejad could erase his deeds. Let him speak, my arse. Why? Why not just look at what he's done? Read his speeches... he gives plenty of them. Ask the Iranians who've been punished under his short rule thus far? If they are still alive, that is.

But Columbia's head honchos dug their own grave... and as a country who believes in freedom, we let them jump in. Altho many of us did so, shouting warnings along the way as to how ridiculously stupid an exercise in free speech it was. But they compounded the original error - digging that grave even deeper - when Bollinger opened his mouth and introduced his invited guest with all the grace of a coyote munching on a roadrunner.

But Galganov brings up another reality from it all that constantly weighs heavily on my mind... our leaders of the future.

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I watched and listened to many of Columbia's students defend their University's decision to invite this religious genocidal nut-job, and came away with the sad reality that these little schmucks will one day manage the affairs of America and elsewhere. How utterly depressing.

I can forgive "children" for being stupid, because children have to learn. But, what I find unforgivable, are the adults (Deans and Professors) who should have known better.

But how could they know better if they never left the halls of academia?

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If anything positive comes from this mess, it will be that we should understand that the world of academia is a pretend world that should not be taken seriously.

And that "children" who haunt the corridors of higher learning are nothing more than "children", who have yet to grow-up and understand that there is a real world out there that is very much different than the pretend world they are taught to believe in.

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In the last few years, the world of Leftist elitist academia has been an embarrassment, with professors who are at best incompetent, and at worst imposters, liars and purveyors of untruths. This all splashes back on Democrats.

What Columbia succeeded in doing with their invitation to Ahmadinejad was two-fold. It further empowered a very wicked man amongst his own people. And it showed academic elitism for what it truly is.

Unfortunately, and as Galganov also points out, the liberal wing of our country has a death grip on our educational facilities. Liberal control and the "love the one with" notions started entering our schools hot and heavy right about the time of Vietnam. Yes... been there done that. I am of that generation. I watched educational criteria and curricula morph over the decades, to my astonishment.

It may be well worth noting that Mr. Galganov - and myself - have much to be concerned over these future leaders being graduated today. After all, take a good look at the composition of our Congress, and most especially our Democrat candidates. These pols governing our lives today are mostly those from the liberal educational years of Vietnam and just beyond. They take their greatest pride insisting war solves nothing, and everyone - including terrorists - will negotiate and honor the outcomes. They do not have the heart to fight for this country with anything but words.

So I add to Galvanov's assessments that: not only has the liberal academia shown how inept they are, and how engaging in discussion with terrorists is most often unsuccessful. But they have shown us that we will continue to be in deep shit with our future leaders under their tutelage.

Or, as Tony Blankley put the same thought today in his column...

It was said back in the 1970s that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. But if liberals permit America to be mugged by our lethal enemies, they (and we) may not survive to become sadder and wiser conservatives.