Monday, September 24, 2007

Let him speak.

I see that the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, hate-mongering neo's are swinging their sabres again. Ahmadinejad will be speaking at the United Nations and is scheduled to speak at Columbia University.

The president of Columbia University said "That such a forum could not take place on a university campus in Iran today sharpens the point of what we do here."

Well said. Letting the man speak shows which is the better society. Silencing him shows we are afraid. Some say he will be sure to utter some nonsense that will further incite our war passions. Possible, but I doubt it.

Juan Cole tried his best to straighten out the constantly quoted 'wipe Israel off the map' line but nobody listened and thus, this weekend it was nearly all you heard about Ahmadinejad. (According to Cole what Ahmadinejad had said was more akin to that the Zionist regime would collapse - as had the once formidable Soviet Union and the regime of Saddam Hussein. In addition, Ahmadinejad was quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini who originally made the statement in the early 1980's - when we were actively trading arms for hostages, recall?)

In addition, if there were fines issued for violations of 'Godwin's Law' (a warning against invoking a comparison to Hitler) then righties would need even greater tax cuts to pay for all the penalties. Is Ahmadinejad Hitler? Yes, if it means he wants to see Iran as the middle eastern super power. But he doesn't have the ability to make this fantasy reality. He has the ability to mobilize terrorists, true - so how would nuclear strikes against him solve our terrorism dilemma? It wouldn't.

Bring him here. Let him speak. As reported at Huffpo "As leading campus free speech and first amendment scholar Robert O'Neil rightly notes: "If you suppress a viewpoint by disallowing or barring a controversial speaker, you make the speaker a martyr."

6 comments:

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Boo ya, well said Ms. Wundrun.

Anonymous said...

It's a joke that we are trying to muzzle him.

Anonymous said...

Re. Godwin's Law: I think that if one isn't comparing the rw to the Nazis today, one isn't paying attention.

Jess Wundrun said...

fillip: there is a certain 'rovian quotient' at play in the Godwin's law ruse that always seems to come up.

If we are not allowed to compare rw fascists to german fascists the rw fascists become more and more totalitarian by the day.

or 'don't call a spade a spade because spade calling is too prevalent'.

Fran said...

Blah blah blah blah - all the anti efforts just make the little man in the Members Only jacket seem bigger than he is.

Listen- I think he hates Jews and Israel, but as aptly pointed out does not have the power to do much but rock everyone's cages.

And we must not forget that the very strong Israel lobby is behind a lot of the noise against him here.

Which skews it all. In a way that is not good.

Dr. Zaius said...

They should give Ahmadinejad a real forum, like "Dancing With the Stars." He could be as popular as Tucker Calson!

In Iran, the president does not have any real power anyway. It is funny that he ran on a John Edwards "Man of the People" ticket, and then went all Republican after he got in office.