…At least, according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This was a terrific event. Columbia President Lee Bollinger totally, and very effectively, trashed the guy in his introduction. I would have liked a sharper question on the holocaust: What specifically do you think is incomplete about the current research? Do you believe that 6 million Jews were killed? What do you think further research might reveal? And how to do you evaluate Adolf Hitler as a national leader?
Bottom line: This sort of freedom always works to our benefit. Those who screeched that an Ahmadinejad appearance would be terrible, a travesty of something or other, seem sort of silly now. (Actually, I thought they seemed sort of silly before.) The more the world sees of this guy–and hears from him–the better it will be, the more he’ll have to refine his tune. Next step: We need to be more accurate about the actual power he has in Iran–which is to say, not very much. And none over the nuclear program. But I’ll have more on that in my print column this week.
