Word: iranian
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...fiery introduction. But by inviting a powerful and important—though abhorrent—figure and peppering his guest with pointed questions, Bollinger showed the true nature of academic debate: that all are free to speak but none are free from scrutiny.The controversy surrounding an invitation to an Iranian president is not alien to Harvard, which last year attracted similar ire, albeit on a smaller scale, for hosting Ahmadinejad’s predecessor Mohammad Khatami. We said then—and we say now—that such invitations are not only appropriate but laudable.The worthiness of an invitation...
...moment you're ready to strike them, the snub is a handy little act of war by other means. Handled correctly, it visibly treats its target as invisible. Thus did Laura Bush proceed to her seat in the U.N. General Assembly, steadying herself on the desk occupied by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but apparently ignoring him as he glanced her way. "The despondent despot," gloated the New York Post, "immediately lowered his head again" and sat back to look at his watch and listen as President Bush, in a speech, lambasted Iran's "brutal and repressive" regime. It was left...
...tyrant's hand touching sacred ground. Next came Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, who managed to outrage just about everyone either for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak or for insulting him before he had a chance to. As it turned out, Bollinger's "vaccination" was unnecessary, since the Iranian's own remarks did a much better job of showing his foolishness...
...smell of sulfur in the room. Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, star of last year's show, skipped the session this year, perhaps to tend to a new state-owned movie studio designed to help break "the dictatorship of Hollywood." But he did take time out to call his Iranian friend and compliment him for standing up to the Great Satan. And it all occurred in a week when Burmese monks were in the streets risking their lives for freedom, their actions speaking far louder than any words...
...notes that Americans don't understand Iranian history, saying that the movie 300 - with which he seems intimately familiar - was a "complete distortion of Iranian history." Iran, he says, has never invaded anyone in its history...