Mr. Ahmadinejad Comes to America

Why is it that so many people think that our democracy is so fragile that it needs to be handled with kid gloves? The current administration and war hawks don't want to give "terrorists" their day in court because they might say something that could bring down the Republic. Then there are others who don't think that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, should speak because....oh, he might say something nutty and be exposed as such?

Every leader of a United Nations gets diplomatic immunity to speak before that body. Though, restrictions can be placed on that person's movement. For instance, Mr. Ahmadinejad could only travel within 25 mi of Columbus Circle. NYPD decided that even though the 9/11 WTC site was within that radius, security would have been too much of a nightmare for him to visit. Or, maybe it was politics as he questions the official version of the events of 9/11 (as some Americans do).

So, while he's in NYC, he gets an invite to speak at Columbia University. Let the howling and protests begin, "He shouldn't have a forum to speak because he doesn't like Jews, or wants to build a nuclear bomb, or denies the Holocaust, etc." Shining a bright light on dictators, racists and idiots will do more to discredit them than by trying to shut them up. What better way to show that our country has an open marketplace of ideas than by giving this guy a forum to say what he wants and then let people choose whether to accept his ideas? Interestingly, while stories about his speech are the most e-mailed on Al-Jezeera's English page, it's not on the home page (at least as of this writing).

Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, couldn't have been a bigger ass. He invites Ahmadinejad to speak (a great PR coup for the university), gets alarmed that people object, then introduces his guest with insults. That must have been a pretty uncomfortable meet-and-greet afterwards. People will reject this guy's ideas without any help from the kindly professor.

Of course, in the big picture, what Ahmadinejad thinks or says is moot. The real power in Iran is with the mullahs, through the Supreme Leader and the Assembly of Experts as they are the ones who get to decide who gets to even run in elections. Mr. Ahmadinejad does their bidding and when he's outlived his usefulness, or says things that really get the country in hot water, they'll get rid of him and let the people choose his successor from a pool of others who will carry the message of the Assembly of Experts.

In the meantime, we should give the leaders of authoritarian regimes as much media time as possible. By them speaking outside of their state controlled media, more people in their countries are likely to hear their crazy shit. For every 1 convert to Mr. Ahmadinejad's way of thinking, there will be 1,000 who reject his idiocy. Who knows, by understanding Iran better maybe we can more successfully negotiate with them.

The most important moral of this is that our system of government can stand up to people kicking at it. Whether it means putting terrorists on trial or letting tyrants speak, democracy is not fragile. Rather, it get stronger as people reject those who seek to topple it.