He's made quite clear who he is and what he stands for. He is an enemy of civilization who runs the nation the State Department has identified as the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world today.

He is not here to debate or be persuaded. He doesn't seek dialogue or a give- and-take of ideas -- unless you want to humor him with an openness to his suggestion that 9/11 was an inside government job. He is not here to argue his case for Iran's nuclear proliferation, which he denies with the chutzpah and finesse of a Goebbels or Stalin.

He is an incorrigible believer in Islamic world conquest whose ideology makes him impervious to reason, negotiation, diplomacy or compromise. He's here to promote his propaganda and to recruit those amoral enough in our media to spread it and those gullible enough in our population to swallow it. The only thing that will dissuade him is force or credible threats to use it.

Besides, there are plenty of people in this country who are protected by the First Amendment who are more than willing to promote Ahmadinejad's ideas. Indeed, it seems many on the left derive some kind of perverse pleasure seeing Ahmadinejad taunting President Bush and his policies. Figuratively speaking, you can't help but wonder whether for some of them, it's not as much about promoting the First Amendment right to burn the flag as it is their delight in watching the flag burn.

Why else would comment posters on the liberal Daily Kos blog say they have a crush on this dictator? Why else would the mainstream media have marveled at his rambling, incoherent insulting letters to President Bush -- giving them and his warped ideas a shameful degree of credence?

If Columbia were serious about its openness to all ideas, it wouldn't have revoked its speaking invitation to the Minuteman Project's Jim Gilchrest.

Sadly, liberal academia's simulated love affair with the First Amendment and so-called tolerance for diverse viewpoints just goes one way.