ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Sep. 27 2007

In the shadow of Ground Zero, Ahmadinejad reopens wounds
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

My plane touched down in New York on Sunday, just in time for the three-ring
circus generated by the arrival of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the
same day. As I made my way through the city, I could feel the tension generated
by his scheduled appearance at Columbia University. "The Evil Has Landed," the
Daily News headline blared on Monday morning, as traffic reports cautioned
commuters to avoid streets near Columbia that would be clogged with protestors
that day.

Responding to public outcry over the decision to give the demagogic dictator a
platform, Columbia President Lee Bollinger defended it as a victory for free
speech and an opportunity to demand answers from a world leader known more for
jailing critics than debating them. John Coatsworth, dean of Columbia's School
of International and Public Affairs, said he would have extended a similar
invitation to Adolf Hitler.

Such comments, and Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero during his trip,
struck a nerve among New Yorkers. They are a tolerant lot and are accustomed to
hosting internationally reviled despots in their hometown, thanks to their
city's position as the headquarters of the United Nations. But Ahmadinejad is
not just another tin-can tyrant.

A virulent anti-Semite and leader of the world's largest state sponsor of
terrorism, he is charged with arming and funding the terrorists who kill
American soldiers in Iraq and innocent civilians across the Middle East. He has
hosted a conference of Holocaust deniers, proclaimed the murder of 6 million
Jews by the Nazis a "myth" and said Israel should be wiped off the map. In his
own country, Ahmadinejad has presided over a harsh crackdown on social conduct
and personal liberties. And he has been accused by former American hostages of
having been one of their captors during the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis of
1979-'81.

Ahmadinejad passionately promotes the same murderous ideology that motivated
the terrorists who crashed two planes into the Twin Towers six years ago this
month. For New Yorkers, the nearly 3,000 Americans who died in the rubble of
the World Trade Center that day and the feelings of terror and rage that
convulsed the city afterward are not distant memories. And the place where they
perished is not a bland memorial suitable for photo-ops from opportunistic
potentates. Ground Zero is a hallowed site in a scarred city, and it stands
just eight miles from the spot where Ahmadinejad lectured Columbia students
Monday about the "root causes" of terrorism and the Holocaust.

True to his track record, Ahmadinejad did not indulge his ivory-tower
interlocutors with direct answers or genuine dialogue. Although subjected to an
oddly incongruous scolding from Bollinger — the same man who honored him with a
speaking invitation — Ahmadinejad soon seized the opportunity to float
outrageous claims to college students schooled in the postmodern art of
non-judgmentalism.

For a dictator whose failed policies have fueled labor strikes and popular
unrest back home, Columbia's invitation and the subsequent protests boosted his
standing on the world stage and among anti-Americans in the Middle East, while
distracting Iranians from his domestic woes. For Americans living in the shadow
of Ground Zero and those fighting for their lives against Ahmadinejad's proxy
warriors and their co-belligerents in Iraq, the benefits of Columbia's academic
exercise in moral equivalency were not so obvious.

Perhaps it is fitting that the silver lining in this sad episode came from the
New York police force whose officers played such a heroic role on 9/11. When
Ahmadinejad asked to visit Ground Zero, the response by police officials
manifested all the decency, wisdom and common sense that the decision by
Columbia officials lacked.

They said no.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.