Liberals Bow to the Masters of Terror

Bret Stephens, WSJ on Columbia's Conceit that it would "confront" ideas and Iran's Ahmadinejad, even as it would Hitler:

In a March 1952 essay in Commentary magazine on "George Orwell and the Politics of Truth," Trilling observed that "the gist of Orwell's criticism of the liberal intelligentsia was that they refused to understand the conditioned way of life." Orwell, he wrote, really knew what it was like to live under a totalitarian regime--unlike, say, George Bernard Shaw, who had "insisted upon remaining sublimely unaware of the Russian actuality," or H.G. Wells, who had "pooh-poohed the threat of Hitler." By contrast, Orwell "had the simple courage to point out that the pacifists preached their doctrine under condition of the protection of the British navy, and that, against Germany and Russia, Gandhi's passive resistance would have been to no avail."

Trilling took the point a step further, assailing the intelligentsia's habit of treating politics as a "nightmare abstraction" and "pointing to the fearfulness of the nightmare as evidence of their sense of reality." To put this in the context of Mr. Coatsworth's hypothetical, Trilling might have said that in hosting and perhaps debating Hitler, Columbia's faculty and students would not have been "confronting" him, much as they might have gulled themselves into believing they were. Hitler at Columbia would merely have been a man at a podium, offering his "ideas" on this or that, and not the master of a huge terror apparatus bearing down on you. To suggest that such an event amounts to a confrontation, or offers a perspective on reality, is a bit like suggesting that one "confronts" a wild animal by staring at it through its cage at a zoo.

So Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, has now been invited to Iran. Will he go? Don't bet on it. He might be worried about being taken hostage by Iran's terror apparatus, as his fellow academics and others have. Which I suppose might result in yet another invitation to Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia.

Having learned nothing from history, in this country liberals and academics such as President Bollinger celebrate their free speech by virtue of the protection of the US military, which Columbia refuses to allow on its campus. Today's liberals bow to the masters of terror, and spit on those who defend us.

Previous post: Columbia's Infamy

UPDATE: The French under Sarkozy ally with us:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy piled pressure on Iran at the United Nations Tuesday, saying it would be unacceptable for the Islamic republic to get hold of nuclear weapons.

Sarkozy's comments came just hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to address the world body, in a speech expected to attempt to play down fears of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"Iran has the right to nuclear energy," Sarkozy told world leaders at the General Assembly's 62nd session here. "But allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons would mean an unacceptable risk for regional and world stability."

Sarkozy added there would be no world peace if the international community "shows weakness in the face of the proliferation of nuclear weapons," in a speech received with loud applause from the rest of the assembly.

UPDATE: Via Michelle Malkin

UPDATE: Former NY mayor and Democrat Ed Koch:

The Daily News reported, "Ahmadinejad has also revived an old slogan of the Khomeinist movement that had fallen into disuse in the '90s: 'Death to America!' Every meeting he addresses in Iran starts and ends with this cry - chanted by professional demonstrators working for the regime." Bollinger should have asked Ahmaninejad about his role in the Iranian hostage taking of American consular officials during the Carter administration.

Barry Rosen, one of the hostages held for 444 days and released on January 20, 1981, the day President Reagan was inaugurated, recently wrote, "Ahmadinejad was one of those outrageous Iranians who took me and more than 50 other Americans hostage for 444 days, violating international law and making us suffer indescribable moments of terror." If Ahmadinejad were not protected by diplomatic immunity, he could be arrested for a host of terrorist and criminal activities.

As important as it was to stand up for the rights of homosexuals, who are hanged or stoned to death in Iran, standing up for the U.S. and the American soldiers being killed daily by Iranian-supplied bombs was particularly relevant and in need of greater emphasis than that given by Bollinger.