AHmadinejad

I was lucky that at the exact time the Iranian president was being introduced I was in a place to witness it. His speech says a lot about this country that many other countries just cannot say. To allow a university to openly invite the president of a country that has been deemed member of the axis of evil speaks volumes on the importance of allowing an open dialogue between potentially warring nations. However, if someone of this importance is speaking ears need to be perked and ready to take everything in. Free speech is only as poignant as the ears hearing it. If you are speaking to a crowd that already deems you a threat and hates you, then the speech gets lost and unforutnately dwindled down to an exerpt in the next days papers. AHmadinejad was very well composed and delivered his speech with dignity. He even made a hilarious joke at the end. He seemed at ease for the duration with the exception of the question of Iranian homosexuals being execution to which he accused homosexuality as being a western phenomenon that Iran did not have to worry about. People need to understand how grand of a gesture it was for AHmadinejad to accept COlumbia invitation and educate the students on Irans policy. I believe because his back was against the wall from the onset, in terms of, thepublic outcry, and the cheering for an incredibily disrecpectful Columbia Universty president. I can appreciate direct questioning but he was implanting a bias using the tired and done rhetoric of the United States government in his questioning. What people are praising as strength and courage I see as flagrant and disrespectful behaviour. If your going to invite him to speak, Columbia University, then allow him to speak. Some of his most poignant points were being cut short by the moderator or was lost in translation because of the bumbling translator, ESPECIALLY when it came to his feelings on Israel. The crowd showed blatant, yet typical, American disregard for authority as booing and such were skattered throughout the speech. I honestly feel that the world fears a man who should not be feared.
One of the things he mentioned and was interogatted about during the Q&A was his statements of the holocaust. He stated that, for one, the holocuast is a true and historical fact. Two, like any other event in history the Holocaust should be broken down and analyzed to tireless detail. As a student in Academia is see no problem with him saying that there should be more studies on the holocaust. Why not? And his third point was what did the Holocaust have to do with Palestine, the malnourished fetus baking in the womb of the Middle East. Palestinians have been abused for such a LOOOOOOOONG time, why is nothing ever being done...? How can country like Israel whose lost a lot of blood historically reciprocate that behavior on a smaller nation? However, I dont feel like getting into Palestinian-Iraeli conflicts rite now. In closing I feel that it took a lot for AHmadinejad to come to the an American institution of education and attempt to open up the lines of communication between the academia of the two warring countries. I pray something can be done with a pen in the stead of a bullet.