The Wolf at the Sheep Convention

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured the people at Columbia that Iran was a free country. Yeah, like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. According to Reuters today:

Iran’s judiciary has sealed off the offices of a popular news Web site critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies after journalists continued to update it despite official filtering, the Web site said.

Rights groups and diplomats say there is a broad crackdown on dissenting voices in the Islamic state, which is under growing Western pressure over its disputed nuclear programme. The authorities deny such moves, saying they allow free speech.

Hat tip: Belmont Club.

The Mullahcracy that runs Iran obviously thinks that their enemies, including us, are all fools. I suppose if we let them build their bomb, they'll turn out to be right.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get about Mad Jad speaking at Columbia. What planet do these people live on ? Welcoming Ahmedinajad is like welcoming the wolf to the sheep convention. We are presented with the spectacle of an American university providing, gratis, a forum for a deadly enemy of America, of freedom -- of the whole concept of a University -- to grandstand for credulous fools and to make propaganda useful for his government's evil purposes.

It's a win-win for the Mullahs: Ahmedinajad can coffee-house with the eggheads who can go to the student union and talk about what a democrat Mad Jad is for even appearing, even as Mad Jad goes back to his hotel and calls home to tell the police to close a newspaper or three. What a joke ! "See" the Mullahs can say to their Iranian foes "the Americans welcome our leader at their universities. Small chance they will care that you are arrested, beaten and jailed."

Ahmedinajad won't be the first dictator to successfully play both ends against the middle. The aforementioned credulous fools -- the pro-wolf sheep, are who really drive me up the wall. These people, acting as what the Marxists called useful idiots, will be able to shout from the rooftops that the presence of the dictator means the Iranians want peace, and that we should forbear from pressing them on their nuclear program.

"Sheep" is possibly the wrong word for these people: we have this problem that so much of our intellectual and political leadership class has no conception that they could ever be less than top dogs. Like the leaders of 20's and 30's Britain, our own Great and Good cannot imagine a world in which they are not part of the anointed; not part of the class that runs the commerce, dictates the culture and gives the law to the whole world.

Unfortunately for all of us, the swells are about to get a rude awakening. The dollar's falling like a stone; the unipolar world of the 90's is vanishing as rich foreign competitors began arming to the teeth; and we're in debt up to our eyes. While our intellectual, economic and political leaders pretend 9/11 never happened, spout their pablum about peace, imbibe their global warming religion, enjoy their drinks, imported cars and their weird artwork, they should think on who might be throwing the parties in the future. The dishes served won't be to their liking.