Question: Who’s more welcome on an Ivy League campus -- a Middle Eastern autocrat who actively opposes American interests? Or a patriotic teenager who hopes to serve our country as a military officer?
Answer: the autocrat.
On Sept. 24, Columbia University welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was in town for meetings at the United Nations (a popular forum for dictators), so he dropped by the school to address faculty and students.
Yet Columbia students who aspire to become officers through the Reserve Officers Training Corps remain unwelcome on campus. The school banned ROTC in 1969, during the height of the debate over the Vietnam War. Cadets must travel across New York City to Manhattan College to serve their country.
Columbia’s president, Lee Bollinger, defended the decision to invite Ahmadinejad. “What is at stake is the ability to learn about the world and know about people, even dictators, even people who are highly repressive and highly dangerous,” he told ABC News.
Ahmadinejad, though, hardly lacks a soapbox. He addressed the United Nations and can speak to his country’s assembly any time. In fact, his belligerent take on certain issues was well known even before he came to Columbia.
For example, Ahmadinejad has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map.” He calls the Holocaust “a myth.” And he insists that Iran will acquire a nuclear capability, whether the West approves or not. “We believe that atomic energy is a blessing given by God,” he says -- a blessing he vows to share: “Iran is ready to transfer nuclear know-how to the Islamic countries due to their need.” As if that rhetoric wasn’t enough, American generals say Iran is actively arming our enemies in Iraq.
So why allow Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia?
Still, this controversy may end up being valuable if it reopens the debate over whether ROTC should be allowed on campus. It’s past time to put Vietnam behind us and recognize that today’s military is made up entirely of volunteers. Nobody’s forced to join ROTC. People do so because they want to serve their country.
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