Once upon a time, universities were places of learning, of discovery, where young minds were molded into the visionary leaders of tomorrow. Now, they are cheap venues for bashing foreign heads of state you find objectionable.
Hot off the heels of Columbia University’s throwdown on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ferdowsi University in northern Iran has invited President Bush to speak. They’d like him to answer questions on the Holocaust, terrorism, human rights and U.S. foreign policy in the same way Ahmadinejad did, “despite all the insults directed at him”. Interesting that they basically front-ended the fact that they plan to insult Bush a la Bollinger.
The White House response was predictable:
“President Bush looks forward to traveling to a democratic Iran, an Iran where its leaders allow freedom of speech and assembly for all of its people and an Iran where the leaders mourn the victims of the Holocaust, not call for the destruction of Israel.”
Oh, Snap!
Seriously, this whole thing is a bit juvenile. While the ‘sticks and stones’ academic tour may pull the column inches, it’s a bit beneath universities in any part of the world.
the interesting thing about the leader of Iran is that he’s about as popular in Iran as Bush in america.
Iranians are quite a well educated and secular people with a small portion of muslim extremists. At one time in their history they emulated everything American and the place was a cosmopolitan country.