While Columbia University has every right to host the controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an "honored" guest, it doesn't mean that it should. This is America, and the fact that the Iranian president, an archenemy of our government, can come here on our soil and speak his mind is an example of our most fundamental freedom at work.

This is the beauty of our great nation, and while any sane American finds Mr. Ahmadinejad and his beliefs repulsive, it is nonetheless his right to come here and state his case anywhere he chooses.

However, this does not mean that neither the United States nor its institutions should be going out of their way to accommodate one of our most sworn and dangerous enemies.
If he wants to bellow his beliefs from every street corner in New York City, or if he wants to come to Madison and scream from Library Mall like the religious fanatics or the hippy leftovers, by all means, he has every right to do that. But it would be a much different story if the University of Wisconsin were providing a venue for a man like this. The fact that Columbia University is doing just that is wholly unpatriotic.

Columbia University has every right to invite whatever speakers they would like, but voluntarily giving a tyrant like Mr. Ahmadinejad an outlet in the free world is bordering on pure unpatriotic activity. The U.S. military is fighting and dying at the hand of this man's cronies as we speak, yet the acting dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, John Coatsworth, feels that this is good for students because they see an alternative point of view. This is from the same guy who said that Hitler would have been welcome at Columbia University.

The Iranian regime is listed by the U.S. State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism, yet here is Columbia University in New York City, where the agents of the terrorism Ahmadinejad sponsors took so many lives on Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Ahmadinejad's government has also been accused of assisting the insurgency that claims the lives of American troops every day in Iraq. In addition, he has expressed his desire to have Israel wiped clean off the map, while publicly denying that the Jewish Holocaust ever occurred.

Of even bigger concern is Iran's flouting of international law and Mr. Ahmadinejad's alleged lack of cooperation with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to the U.S. State Department, "samples taken at the Natanz centrifuge facility show evidence of [uranium] enrichment", which would be crucial to the development of nuclear weapons. Iran's government claims it is pursuing its nuclear program for peaceful purposes, but most experts agree that the uranium enrichment occurring at Natanz is not "necessary for a civilian nuclear fuel cycle like Iran's." But most Americans can agree that Mr. Ahmadinejad's intentions are not one hundred percent noble, the real issue here is Columbia University.

Columbia deserves all the negative press it gets from this endeavor, but this is its choice and it has every right to invite Hitler, Stalin, Mr. Ahmadinejad or whoever else it pleases. In no way am I arguing that the Iranian president's comments be censored or that he should not be allowed to speak freely here. What I am claiming is that it is very unpatriotic to host this man while our troops are dying in the field because of his backing. We are in the middle of a War on Terror, yet Columbia has voluntarily given the leader of a state sponsor of terrorism a platform here in the very country he wishes to destroy. No truly American institution should give this tyrant the time of day, even though all have the right to.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is getting everything he wants from this media circus right now. He knew this would be controversial and that every American news station would jump all over an event such as this. Thus, the Iranian president got the chance to get into the home of every American via television and radio. What more could he have asked for? Columbia's patronage of this man, while it is their right, is a slap in the face to every American and especially to all the victims of Sept. 11 and our armed forces fighting his insurgency overseas.

Joe Trovato ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and political science.