Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions
TEHRAN - Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger’s insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.
The following is the full text of the letter.
* * * *
Mr. Lee Bollinger
Columbia University President
We, the professors and heads of universities and research institutions in Tehran , hereby announce our displeasure and protest at your impolite remarks prior to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent speech at Columbia University.
We would like to inform you that President Ahmadinejad was elected directly by the Iranian people through an enthusiastic two-round poll in which almost all of the country’s political parties and groups participated. To assess the quality and nature of these elections you may refer to US news reports on the poll dated June 2005.
Your insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful.
Your comments, filled with hate and disgust, may well have been influenced by extreme pressure from the media, but it is regrettable that media policy-makers can determine the stance a university president adopts in his speech.
Your remarks about our country included unsubstantiated accusations that were the product of guesswork as well as media propaganda. Some of your claims result from misunderstandings that can be clarified through dialogue and further research.
During his speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad answered a number of your questions and those of students. We are prepared to answer any remaining questions in a scientific, open and direct debate.
You asked the president approximately ten questions. Allow us to ask you ten of our own questions in the hope that your response will help clear the atmosphere of misunderstanding and distrust between our two countries and reveal the truth.
- Why did the US media put you under so much pressure to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from delivering his speech at Columbia University? And why have American TV networks been broadcasting hours of news reports insulting our president while refusing to allow him the opportunity to respond? Is this not against the principle of freedom of speech?
- Why, in 1953, did the US administration overthrow the Iran’s national government under Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh and go on to support the Shah’s dictatorship?
- Why did the US support the blood-thirsty dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran, considering his reckless use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers defending their land and even against his own people?
- Why is the US putting pressure on the government elected by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza instead of officially recognizing it? And why does it oppose Iran ’s proposal to resolve the 60-year-old Palestinian issue through a general referendum?
- Why has the US military failed to find Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden even with all its advanced equipment? How do you justify the old friendship between the Bush and Bin Laden families and their cooperation on oil deals? How can you justify the Bush administration’s efforts to disrupt investigations concerning the September 11 attacks?
- Why does the US administration support the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) despite the fact that the group has officially and openly accepted the responsibility for numerous deadly bombings and massacres in Iran and Iraq? Why does the US refuse to allow Iran ’s current government to act against the MKO’s main base in Iraq?
- Was the US invasion of Iraq based on international consensus and did international institutions support it? What was the real purpose behind the invasion which has claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Where are the weapons of mass destruction that the US claimed were being stockpiled in Iraq?
- Why do America’s closest allies in the Middle East come from extremely undemocratic governments with absolutist monarchical regimes?
- Why did the US oppose the plan for a Middle East free of unconventional weapons in the recent session of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors despite the fact the move won the support of all members other than Israel?
- Why is the US displeased with Iran’s agreement with the IAEA and why does it openly oppose any progress in talks between Iran and the agency to resolve the nuclear issue under international law?
Finally, we would like to express our readiness to invite you and other scientific delegations to our country. A trip to Iran would allow you and your colleagues to speak directly with Iranians from all walks of life including intellectuals and university scholars. You could then assess the realities of Iranian society without media censorship before making judgments about the Iranian nation and government.
You can be assured that Iranians are very polite and hospitable toward their guests.
© 2007 Fars News Agency
I wait with baited breath for Bolliger’s answers … if indeed they will be forthcoming.
The questions, actually, should be addressed to the U.S. Congress, if one that represents the American People still exists.
Well done. I think the people of both countries deserve to hear Mr. Bollinger’s response.
It was a real achievement to make Mr. Ahmadinejad look like a gentleman, but Mr. Bollinger pulled it off.
Mr. Bollinger embarrassed himself, Columbia University, and his country. The very least he can do is to call a news conference and give his best attempt at honest answers to these very good questions.
Back to you, Mr. Bollinger. This time, we’d all like to see if you can act like a grownup.
Well, the Iranian universities have certainly put Western universities to shame. Where are our university presidents’ denunciations of Bollinger’s shameful “welcome” speech to Columbia’s invited guest speaker?
And what about Congress? They can pass a resolution denouncing moveon.org for a perfectly accurate newspaper ad but can’t censure a prominent academic for embarrassing the entire academic community.
I’m very glad to read this.
I think the last line says it all:
“You can be assured that Iranians are very polite and hospitable toward their guests.”
Bollinger, and the media, and a few TV personalities have proved beyond doubt that the USA’s legendary reputation for hospitality has sunk without trace.
I would like to take the Iranians up on their invite and plead with them to forgive us of our past debts and the planned attack from the Bush Administration. I could tell them that Americans do not want war with them and that we have lost control of our government, but if the citizens of both countries and the world stand together we can defeat this terrorist regime that has hijacked the United States Of America.
Justin Raimondo has quite a good article on Ahmadinejad’s Columbia reception:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11672
At first I was very happy that Columbia University decided to allow Ahmadinejad to come speak and field questions, but obviously the introduction by Bollinger was extremely inappropriate and really shut down any hope of an open exchange of ideas.
This response is a very good retort on the part of the Chancellors of Iran and I hope that Bollinger will answer.
The frightening thing is that the anti-Iranian hysteria whipped up by the way-out neocon mystics and propagated incessantly by the mainstream official press, has spread into the discourse and mind-set of important representatives of the academic world. Bollinger and his ilk have lost the ability or interest to examine the abundant information on Iran’s politics and policies and the incidence of the US intervention (1953 and the Shah), and open hostility since, in shaping Iran’s present fears.
Nazi Germany’s path to agressive war was assured when those academics who did not escape, invented “justifications” of the master race’s right to attack other countries. Let’s hope that most university people do try to seriously answear the 10 questions.
Not only that, but collusion of the moronic and the asshole is evident from Bush’s referring to Cuba as having a “cruel dictator” in his speech to the UN.
You know, the speech where Condolences Rice LICKED HIS EAR while he spoke!
Everyone in the US should be ashamed!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great Qs, but we’ve been asking some for years and others a decade or more. If you get an answer please fill us in.
I just hope that Bollinger isn’t a creationist, or your whole letter may be dismissed as false based on your statement,
“Your insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture is deeply shameful.”
Story over here by some, the head honcho even, is that the whole world is only 6,000.
11 Why was anyone surprised with Britany’s MTV Award performance, when she never had any talent in the first place?
right on Gene Therapy. i am going to cut and paste this letter to my congressional reps…not that they represent me or you anymore..
New York has always been negative to leaders perceived to be enemies of Israel. NYC is a defacto zionist state.
Amadinejad would have gotten a better reception in Jena!
So Hillary just voted for the Lieberman bill, presumably to demonstrate how tough she is and so not to offend her Israeli-Firster support-base. Apparently although the majority of American Jews oppose Bush and the invasion of Iraq, one must not state criticism of Israel, otherwise one is branded as an anti-semite. How can it be both ways? How can one not support the invasion of Iraq and Iran and also not criticise Israel which openly lobbies for the invasion of Iraq and Iran. HUH? WELL?
Is it how tough she is or how stupid she is or how unethical she is?
Also, how can another country’s official armed forces be legitimately tagged as a terrorist group? Sounds like another end run around the Geneva conventions.
This is supposedly the land of the free and the home of the brave. Let’s see who’s brave here? So far my vote goes to Ahmadinejad as the only person brave enough to face his adversary. Our President is like OZ, hiding behind the curtain and putting on a show.
How about intelligent? Or professional? I’d have to say Ahmadinejad again on both counts. That’s really sad.
It’s easy to spew out lies, hate, and bigotry. We did it with the Indians. We did it again with the blacks. It’s happening again in Jena. Lee Bollinger isn’t the only ignorant bigot. We have a long way to go. If only we could resurrect Mr. Lincoln. I’m certain that he would be shocked.
If the NY Times is something other than the US version of PRAVDA, and Columbia U. something other than the US version of Moscow State University, then The Times should print these Iranians’ questions to Bollinger on the front page, and let him squirm to answer.
Bollinger’s answers will probably be nothing but the same kind of hypocriical US gov propaganda he spewed out when he ambushed Ahmadinejad on-stage. But the Iranians’ questions are legitimate and deserve wider US publication.
Besides making Bollinger squirm, their wider publication might jog a few heads among the brainwashed US citizenry.
We don’t need to be Ahmadinejad’s friend to call for this. We just need to be a friend to Truth.
To the students of Iran: Good questions but how can Bollinger answer your questions when he has not the ability to understand them. Okay, I do not know this for a fact. However i would be surprised if he even attempted to answer them. To everyone everywhere: We are all fundamentally the same yet individually unique. Any attempted to generalize any population is futile and false.
Zoya:
Excellent article by Justin Raimondo you link to above. He has some very important links in his article. It should be required reading for all who want to bomb Iran.
To Mr bullying-Jerk:
You have been accorded the convenience of answering the 10 questions in the comfort of your favorite armchair at home, and without the presence of pre-arranged hecklers. You will also not be introduced as:
This here is the president of a university who made a clown of himself.
It ia a sad day for the U.S. when the president of Iran exhibits considerably more class and dignity than the president of Columbia University.
Absolutely. Appalling behavior which reveals the nadir to which Intellectual life in the US has sunk. The insults and mass hysteria seemed to ignore
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s responses which I understood to be that Iran does not want war that it will not attack except in self defence, that it acknowledged the holocaust, this could have been a lot stronger, but the US denies the agent orange and ecological crimes in Iran and war crimes in Iraq-Iran war and Bush’s climate change denials will result in the deaths of millions of people. The homophobic remarks were unfortunate but the President would have a lot of allies amongs the Neocons and religious right. We must remember the US is threatening to use bunker busting nuclear weapons in Iran.
www.peacesource.net
Abandoning a neutral academic stance and good manners,Bollinger shamed himself. But he accurately reflected the psyche of the average American citizen I think, one-eyed, parochialism. But perhaps they have this in common with all the rest of us in the world.
Lee Bollinger abused the power of his office and acted in a manner unbecoming a university president. He ought to be sacked for “conduct unbecoming . . .” I was shocked as I listened to him. If Ahmadinajad hadn’t been so bent on his own peculiar agenda he would (and should) have left the stage and the University; no one, and certainly not president of a country, should have been treated the way Bollinger treated him. What a perversion of academic freedom and civility!
It suffices to say, Ahmadinejad made alot of people look really foolish in this country in a very short time.
Right on Tehran professors, you tell like it is to that arrogant, self-satisfied, and self-righteous Columbia University president, who apparently has such a virulent case of ideologitis that he is unable to get the most mundane facts straight and has demonstrated to the whole world that he is as reality averse as BushCo.
Bollinger, you are a proud representative of today’s state of higher learning: brutally ideological, ill-bred, and knowledge deficient.
They are so right on. Here is my response, sent directly to Bollinger(bollinger@columbia.edu) and the Iranian Embassy:
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD
Let’s hand it to President Ahmadinejad. In response to alarmingly rude behavior by the president of Columbia University, he held his ground, spoke his truth. Chutzpah? Foolhardiness? Courage?
I don’t understand or sympathize with many of the Iranian president’s espoused beliefs, but I sure don’t condone blatant bad manners from a university president who had invited him to speak.
Vote to censure, members of Congress?
Imagine, if you can, the sitting US president invited to speak before a crowd at a major Iranian university. How would we feel if he was taunted, called names by his host? How would the fawning US media react? How would GW comport himself? How would he defend his unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, resulting in non-ending occupation and the wholesale slaughter of an innocent people? Would he keep composed, speak his truth?
Oil, oil, oil…..
I would not have blamed President Ahmadinejad if had quietly risen from his seat and left the Columbia University stage. He had every right to.
No gays in Iran? The hypocritical “religious right” with their fine, upstanding congressional representatives should be leaping for joy, lining up to buy one-way tickets.
If I had to choose between dining with President Ahmadinejad and GW, I’d select the former. The conversation would be fascinating, illuminating. I’ll bet he wouldn’t talk with his mouth full, either.
My apologies, President Ahmadinejad, for the US’s bad manners.
We have so few real leaders here to set good examples.
I love you guys! I couldn’t have said it better! This is going out to every one I know. I expect you all to do the same. This letter represents an ideology that is foreign in the US.
bush has sagged to a new low having lost a match of wits, so to speak, against ahmadinejad, for the second year in a row.
ahmadinejad, the returning champ off the hook in nyc.
i have worked for many years in the inner city with drug addicts and alcoholics , many who are both.
everyone knows how devastating the effects of these substances are as most of us have family members with issues.
am i right people?
the physical effects are more than obvious, and while the psychological effects may sometimes be apparent, their seriousness is not always as plain.
we know that bush was an alcoholic for 25 years, a serious abuser. we know that he had a long term cocaine issue.
when i look at him it is not apparent - he works out a lot (which is also a classic syndrome for someone who feels his brain going - tries to compensate through fitness)and seems healthy.
but when i listen to him i hear problems everywhere.
he is dyslexic, so we cut him some slack there.
but he has moment to moment lapses of continuity that are painful. he seems to be sailing along and then - boom - the lights go out - and then they come on and, for a moment, he doesn’t seem to know where he is. he is reconstructing a moment - never a good sign.
often he appears to be unaware of a remark he has just made.
many times when he reconstructs his moment - it is not the same as the moment he unplugged from and again he shows problems with continuity.
i wonder if he is suffering the first steps of abuse related dementia.
reagan was having continuity problems while he was the president, as we now know, were and are related to dementia, in his case alzheimer’s.
like bush, reagan, for his age, was as fit as a fiddle. he remained active to compensate for his diminishing alertness. just like bush.
this is not an area of clinical expertise for me, let me be clear. i make no medical claims.
he just sounds like a lot of people i have worked with.
This is a wonderful letter and I believe could be the beginning of real peace. Bollinger is only one of many very shameful people bolstering the West’s greedy agenda, but as the head of a University he should be willing to stand above the greed and speak truth to power. In this he failed miserably. Apologize. Do it sincerely and do it now. The longer you wait the worse it will be for you. Your students need to see real leadership so admit you were wrong, boorish and following a dishonest agenda.
Did the New York Times or Wall Street Journal make room in their newspapers for this letter? Many Americans would also like to hear the answers to these questions, but not specifically from Lee Bollinger.
The President Lee Bollinger has demonstrated that this nation has lost all of his honor. They say discetion is the better part of Valor; which, is something Columbia does not have. All they did was give him ammunition to fan the flames of hatred for the Ameican by people who will not fight for their own freedom. Bush had yet to, learn that if one can not say any thing good at all may be perhaps he need not say nothing at all!
I have sent a letter to Bollinger stating how unprofessional his introduction was. Many CD readers share my feelings.
But how about the Columbia University students present at the gathering? I’d have expected any open-minded, decent person to immediately protest Mr. Bllinger. That did not happen. Our country is lost. No opposition party, no free media, no academic intellectuals, no open-minded future generation…
Time to move the UN to Switzerland.
more examples of american arrogance and false pride. their letter is an excellent one. iran has won the war of words already, but then that’s not hard with smirky at the helm and this fool of a college president
MILESOFMUSIC
have you also noticed how he can’t stand still. he hops from one leg to the other constantly. check it out…….. mr. ahmadinejad on the other hand exuded confidence and answered questions without hesitation or lots of umms and arrrs and ohhhs.
The best time to eat crow is while it is still warm. Let it get cold and you will choke on it.
Once again the USA has disgraced it’s people in the world arena. Bollinger is a baffoon just as much as Bush is a war criminal and mass murderer.
The President of Iran is a highly educated and respected acedemic who should have been treated with the respect he has earned. Bollinger was no doubt coached by Bush &Co to act the way he did and certainly showed his ignorance and stupidity. He should be fired from his post and ostracized from any similiar post.
As an International Doctor presently working in S Lebanon I see each day the devastation that was brought to this country by Bush and his cohorts from the terrorist state of Israel.The millions of Cluster Bombs that were dropped after Israel knew there was a cease fire, continues to kill and maim children every day.What is Iran guilty of?Only accusations with absolutely NO proof, similiar to Iraq before the illegal invasion.The USA is guilty of more war crimes than even the Nazis.
I have met the President of Iran and find him to be forthright and a very religious man.Certainly he is a politician and leader of a large country and has to say and do what is best for his country.But he speaks of peace and has on many occasions offered the hand in friendship only to have it bitten.
It is interesting that Bush refuses to debate with him, but I suppose without his teleprompter, he would once again repeat his posture like he did while reading a goat story to the children in Florida while the towers were falling.
We, as Americans should be ashamed of our country and more ashamed of ourselves for allowing the USA to sink so low.
Wow! I was blown completely away by President Bollinger’s introduction. It was like inviting someone to your home for dinner and right before serving the meal, telling them all the reasons why you can’t stand them anyway. Bon Appetite! It was extremely low class!!!!! The first thing that I thought was, “Boy he just managed to make Americans look more petty, rubeish (is that a real word?) and unlearned than ever. Nicely done!! To express skepticism about Ahmedinejad’s positions on various issues was expected, extreme rudeness was not.
I just forwarded the questions to Bollinger asking him to answer:
bollinger@columbia.edu
Lets all do the same
The Columbia U. incident is a reflection of a much deeper and more fundadamental societal crises we have to face and resolve…., that being the loss of our DEMOCRACY to private corporate and political government powers whose domestic and global decisions have destroyed our present and future hopes for a peaceful and prosperous lifetime for ourselves and our future generations.
Unless we do a societal turnabout in the ways we allow our institutions to be used by public and private “powers” not in the interests of ordinary,everyday citizens..,the often deadly confrontations with our global neighbors will continue endlessly until we wipe ourselves from the face of our earth.
To be free from the foreseen realities of future global antagonisms fostered by the dominant corporate powers that set the tone for our domestic and international policies…, the Iraq invasion being the latest example…., The ONLY direction We, the People, have to no longer be controlled, manipulated, and directed to serve the interests of the political and corporate institutions we today endure, is to openly and honestly begin a much needed community and national dialogue in our public meetings with all political candidates during every election time period…, on all levels…, local, state and national…, in our church gatherings…, in the daily Press readers forums…, and BEGIN TO DISCUSS HOW WE CAN, LEGALLY,PEACEFULLY,through the Constitutional avenues of the BALLOT…, organize ourselves in all our institutional actiivities to transform our present, UNdemocratic political government, and our autocratic corporate institutions, into cooperative societal bodies responsible to building a peaceful and prosperous society based on the rules of democracy wherever we face matters that affect our lives in both domestic and international concerns.
We, the ordinary, everyday people whose skills and expertise are the essential factors that make all our societal instituions function, need to realize the one specific societal tool we today LACK that can enable us to live in harmony with our neighbors,as well as with our life giving environment…, and that is empowerment to make decisions that are in the interests of ALL without anyone losing out in the process.
We need an good dose of DEMOCRACY in all our necessary social institutions.. We have for too long been conditioned to accept being mere spectators to all our governmet processes rather than being actual participants. Democracy was never meant to be a “spectator” sport.
How to begin? Start with a realizeable premise…, a program that can, through dialogue and organization, be realized.. Here’s ONE way to begin the process. IT IS NOT THE ONLY WAY, BUT IT’S A PRACTICAL START TO become aware THAT We have real options to consider…, and the sooner we begin our involvement…, begin to interact in our communities…,get connected with our local and regional brothers and sisters… and broaden our stage to national networks…, we will have crossed the “line” that has been drawn for us by the politicians and corporate autocrats, the Rubicon we are discouraged from crossing…,that divides today’s political and corporate decison makers from the rest of us…, We, the People, who make possible all our societal needs and wants, yet we have no democratic empowerment to determine conditions for our own best interests.
Consider one way to start a dialogue for our “crossing.” Here is mine.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewSystem/
I can’t believe you folks……all wagging your tails in unison!
valmoreo………
What is it you can’t believe? That there is concensus among rational human beings that Mr. Bollinger acted in a rude and shameful manner towards an invited guest? You make vague implications with no substance……….what do you really want to say?
How did Lee Bollinger ever get to run Columbia?
Wonder who wrote Bollinger’s script… is he another puppet…
#12:
why wasn’t the world trade center site treated like any other crime scene, where samples are preserved for forensic examination?
A person who must have had superior talent and intellectual ability rose to the level of president of a great university… and has exhibited hatred and intolerance with words that belie his achievement…what drove him down to this level of crudeness?
Bollinger defended his introduction on All Things Considered yesterday (9-26). It was a good defense, although I wonder if he or any other administrator follows such criteria most of the time. The timing of President Ahmadinejad’s visit is what makes Bollinger’s introduction a problem, not the fact that he challenged the President. I wonder if he would have challenged Ahmadinejad if the Senate were not busy trying to usher in an agreement to attack Iran. It DOES present a rather reassuring backdrop for Bollinger. If we were not preparing to go to war against Iran, and Bollinger introduced Ahmadinejad that way, I would say, go for it! A university is a forum for ideas, not for backpatting and politesse. Columbia has a journalism school. I would love journalists to address our administration in the way Bollinger addressed Ahmadinejad.
These sure are the questions many of us have been asking for some time. America’s selective amnesia regarding our history against Iran is as shameful as Mr. Bollinger’s childish personal insults. I would encourage everyone to call Mr. Bollinger’s office at (212) 854-9970 and ask him if he has the “intellectual integrity” as he puts it, to answer these questions in a public forum.
brevity dixit: “A university is a forum for ideas, not for backpatting and politesse.”
Yes, a university is, among other things, a forum for ideas. So far so good.
However, a forum of views, a place of dialogue among people, even among such persons as are greatly at odds with each other (in whatever respect that may be), need not at all exclude civility and, yes, politeness. In fact, civility and politeness enhance the conveyance of ideas, for in a civil atmosphere the mind is not clouded by the emotions inevitably elicited by rudeness, insults, and lack of respect, all of which are observable in Bollinger’s speech.
The ill-bread character of Bollinger’s speech is not the worst aspect of his shameful performance; it is rather its sheerly ideological tenor. In this respect, see his citing the Council on Foreign Relations, for example, in the “Funding Terrorism” portion of his diatribe. Here’s another instance of hyperdelirious BushCo speech: Bollinger asks Ahmadinejad, “why have you chosen to…threaten to engulf the world with nuclear annihilation?” Now, who used nuclear weapons first, Bollinger, and, furthermore, against civilians, and which nation has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, Bollinger?
Note also this massive contradiction between Bollinger’s patting himself on the back for giving Ahmadinejad the opportunity to speak at Columbia University (actually, for giving the Columbia people the right to listen and speak to him (see, the fourth point in his introductory remarks ‘We do it for ourselves.’)) — for doing so “in the great tradition of openness that has defined this nation” — and his addressing Ahmadinejad at the end of his speech by saying, “I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.” If he had already made up his mind about Ahmadinejad’s ability to answer questions, why did he invite the democratically elected Iranian President to speak, whom he calls a dictator? To listen to himself spew out his own prejudices and his academic rehearsal of Fox News, and to congratulate himself for performing acts of free speech?
Add to that Bollinger’s unmitigated presumption when in his next to last sentence he claims to be speaking for no less than “the modern civlized world.” Speak for yourself, Bollinger! Since when do the Council on Foreign Relations and General Petraeus have a monopoly on what characterizes the modern civilized world?
Here is the letter I emailed to Bollinger earlier this evening.
Mr. Bollinger,
I am copying a letter below addressed to you by Iranian professors. They wrote it in response to the introductory speech you gave on the day of President Ahmadinejad’s visit at Columbia University, and I would suspect that you must have received it by now.
I wish to say that, as a Ph.D. and as a former university professor of many years, I was deeply ashamed by your speech. I found it brutally ideological, ill-bred, ill-informed, and so self-servingly dismissive of the long history of abuse to which the United States has subjected Iran.
It is my hope nonetheless that you will have the elementary courtesy and courage to supply a considerate response to the Iranian professors’ very pertinent questions.
Very truly yours
The questions raised by the Iranian professors are extremely pertinent . But can you imagine someone ,as openly partisan as Bollinger ,ever giving an honest answer.
One expects his response ( should he ever bring himself to do so ) would be very much along the lines of that of his ‘partner-in-crime’ John Bolton .
On a BBC Debate , when Bolton was confronted by Tony Benn about his (Bolton’s ) cowardly evasion of the Vietnam War Draft ( ” I did not relish the thought of dying in some Asian rice-paddy “) - Bolton brushed it off . And ,lip contemptuously curling into his walrus moustache - this latter day “Moustache Pete’ airily stated “I do not choose to dignify him ( Benn ) with a reply.’
Needless to say ,should a reply from Bollinger ever be forthcoming , he’d most definitely have to clear every word and every line with Cheney .
This has to be the very low-point of America’s Ivy Leagues : being headed by men of straw . So flagrantly red-necked . Devoid of even the most elementary courtesies . And totally lacking in class or breeding.
If they can be deemed to represent the ‘very best’ of America -then all one can say is the ‘Ugly American ‘just got far Uglier.
Game -set - and Match to Ahmedinajad.
Bollinger’s uncalled -for diatribe has shown , in the clearest possible terms , that he (Ahmedinajad ) has more class and dignity in his little finger than Bollinger and the rest of his ( “rah-rah-rah’ ) cabal have in their entire persons.
Only police state USA has the right to insult other nations/people. And you can’t understand why you are so disliked around the world? What goes around comes around…and you are starting to get what you deserve.