<p>Gotta love Drudge ( <a href="http://www.drudgereport.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.drudgereport.com/</a> )</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxmEGsOkEVc%5B/url%5D">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxmEGsOkEVc</a></p>
<p>Simply Appalling.</p>
<p>^ lol, i see that illogicality runs deep. I can't understand why there is an inability to distinguish between supporting a view, and confronting it after listening to it. Seems quite the opposite if you ask me. tolerance and respectful confrontation is definitely a better way to undermine a set of views than shutting ears.</p>
<p>Of course - let's confront Hitler, and then let him go back to his country to murder millions. Great idea!</p>
<p>"Of course - let's confront Hitler, and then let him go back to his country to murder millions. Great idea!"</p>
<ul>
<li>would you rather not confront him and then let him go back to his country to murder millions? letting someone speak has nothing to do with denouncing their actions or taking action to stop crimes. In fact tolerance and confrontation works better towards undermining them, than not listening does. Please don't be illogical and equate tolerance to a lack of will-power or conviction, or to blind support of anything.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
- would you rather not confront him and then let him go back to his country to murder millions?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would rather kill the dictator. Do you seriously believe that Prezbo will somehow convince him that his insane views are ridiculously stupid and dangerous?</p>
<p>
[quote]
letting someone speak has nothing to do with denouncing their actions or taking action to stop crimes. In fact tolerance and confrontation works better towards undermining them, than not listening does. Please don't be illogical and equate tolerance to a lack of will-power or conviction, or to blind support of anything.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>We all know what Ahmadinejad believes - today he was present at a military parade where banners that said "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" were being displayed. He has imprisoned, tortured, and killed gays, student activists who want the same free speech and tolerance of viewpoints that you so ardently support, foreign journalists, and others. He has caused the deaths of American troops and Iraqi civilians by funneling arms into Iraq, and is the head of a regime responsible for starting last summer's Israel-Lebanon war through funding Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has killed hundreds of Americans in the past three decades. He is a religious fanatic in a country ruled by other religious fanatics - reason and logic do not work on him. If he were confident that he could destroy America - aka the Great Satan - and Israel - aka the Little Satan - without backlash, he would do so in a heartbeat. Believing that a two hour debate will cause him to reevaluate his views is absurdly naive.</p>
<p>^WOW! you have Completely missed the point. I never ever mentioned or implied that we had a shot at changing his views. Prezbo will never convince him or fundamentalists who allign with him of anything, but he along with other academics and students present there have a shot at convincing neutral people and those unaware of politics that his views are wrong. At any rate, it in a very small way can and probably will work towards educating people about his policies, and help them understand both the extremity and complexity of his views. it's an academic debate, not a pro Ahmadinejad rally, if anything it's an anti-Ahmadinejad rally with him physically present. </p>
<p>I understand history and current politics quite well thank you very much and i do not support ahmadinejad. If you are against him, it's great to have him on campus, grill him and convince more people that his views are extreme. Simply put it's a massive opportunity to debate such issues, hear from a man shaping international politics, and confront views.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I would rather kill the dictator.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>we already established in the other thread that ahmadinajad is not a dictator and neither was hitler. It wouldn't be too hard to argue actually that Hitler was probably more popular in germany in the 1930s than ahmadinajad is in iran now. </p>
<p>the rest of what you wrote is addressed in the other thread, i would suggest you go read it.</p>
<p>Confidentialcoll, Shraf, you two need to stop with your nonsense. Are you suggesting there was a shred of intellect in Hitler's views and he should have a "stage" at your great university to be debated and disputed if he were alive to do so? Unbelievable!! Isn't there enough video and documentation, death and destruction at his hands to know what his views were?? You're obviously not speaking from the viewpoint of those he persecuted, that's for sure. His views could be debated in the classroom or in a larger forum with his *** dead and buried, not given a suite at one of NYC's finest hotels, given the A+ treatment. The idea that you two are in some miniscule way trying to rationalize anything surrounding Hitler says a lot about you. I'll tell you one thing for sure; our government sure as hell took Saddam out, way before most Americans had an inkling about their own cruel intentions...and I don't think he got an invite to yours or any other American university to speak his views.</p>
<p>"Are you suggesting there was a shred of intellect in Hitler's views"</p>
<p>datdude, Hitler was an overall Intellegent person that had a voice powerful enough to persuade the people.
The whole letting "ahmadinajad" speak at Columbia is plain and simple stereotypical. Think about it, if they was so sure that hes up to something and supporting terrorist arms race then they would've locked him up or assisinated him a long time ago. </p>
<p>And then to bring or compare Hitler to this is just asinine. Why bring Hitler's name into this when he's way above "ahmadinajad" caliber.
Its like comparing a Lion to a kitten.</p>
<p>I laughed my butte of when I saw his face in the new York post. (shaking my head) what a joke</p>
<p>Did you read my post? Did I compare Hitler to Ahmadinajad? And since when did the use of intelligence to perpetuate insanity become intelligent?? Let's be adults about these things, are you in any way empathizing, understanding or supportive of Hitler's views?? And please clarify what makes Hitler way above Ahmadinajed's caliber. If you don't think what you and those other two are saying doesn't sound like you're giving Hitler some credit, like DaTurtle said in his earlier post, please don't be so naive. And was not Saddam Hussein powerful, intelligent and persuasive, but nontheless, still viewed by the American public as a threat that had to be killed - before he could make a visit to an American University to talk about his views??</p>
<p>datdude, I never said you're comparing Hitler to Ahmadinajad. Read my post critically because I was actually criticizing the media or who ever brought up Hitler's name in this.
To say a statement like "Since Columbia is letting Ahmadinajad speak at their school, they might as well let Hitler" is just dumb. They're not equal!</p>
<p>I never said it was smart to use intellegance for insanity. i think you're misinterpreting my post heavily. Hitler was actually intellegent but didn't make wise choices. Get the difference?</p>
<p>I would never in a million years give Hitler credit. Hitler is way above Ahmadinajad's extremity. You want to know why? Because if theyw ere both equal, they would never allow him to speak at Columbia. Rather, they would assisinate him or give him some sort of punishment.
When I mentioned caliber, I never meant "Good in Power".
I mean, wake up! Its hitler we're talking about! To give him credit, you must either be retarded or just oblivious to History.</p>
<p>To highlight Hitler's intelligence in light of the crimes against humanity he committed doesn't seem rational to me at all. That's what got former Cincinatti Red's owner, Marge Schott, in trouble with MLB before she died. To suggest, in light of all that we know about him, that he would be good to invite to to come to someone's college to speak is ridiculous. How important is the fact that Hitler was intelligent if he murdered millions of Jews and spoke about blacks not being fully human? OK, so he was obviously the leader of his country and he knew his A B C's, but really, how important is that? Ted Bundy was articulate, charming and probably could've been a brilliant lawyer or anything he wanted to be, but he chose to kill dozens of young women, so really, how important is any other fact about him other than him murdering without mercy. Does he go down in history as brilliant or insane, because it's either or?</p>
<p>When you hear irrational people out and let them share their views you give them strength...a comfort zone to defend their indefensible position. To the extent that Hitler was cruel, powerful and irrational, he needed to be taken out by any means, not paraded around American universities so people could hear from his mouth what they could learn about him in death. And I am not so naive to believe that everyone in our country feels that he was so insane in the first place.</p>
<p>Talking about Hitler as if he ever had anything positive to offer to humankind is suspiciously odd to me. If that is not your position So Authentic, than you should probably further distance yourself from a few of the posts made earlier by confidentialcoll and shraf.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What's to say that we are any different? Hell, Bush believed that wiping out Saddam's regime would be quick and painless and he went for it. How long did it take for our own leader to say "Mission Accomplished"? Less than two months. Does President Bush still believe that we made the right choice? Absolutely. Yes, believing that a two hour debate would alter anyone's views is naive. Looking on your decisions almost 4 years after the fact and refusing to change your view is just foolish. Is it possible that to those in the Middle East, the U.S. seems much more radical and threatening than they are to us? You mentioned that hundreds of Americans have died because he supported Hezbollah. . The number of Iranian deaths surpases this number over ten-fold. Don't be so quick to judge when we are blinded from our own actions.</p>
<p>& I 100% agree with you datdude. If Columbia invited him, would not only pass up applying there but shun them also. But, on the other hand, it takes book-smarts as well as street-smarts to pull off what Hitler did. What comes with being Vile is knowing your surroundings; being clever and shrewd. Thats why I feel even though what he did was extremely heinous, he still was actually intellegent. Wayyyyyyyyyy past the general A B Cs.</p>
<p>To answer the question of brilliance versus insanity, I'd say insanity because brilliance is commonly associated with a person who uses their intellegence for good things. Hitler doesn't fit that description at all!</p>
<p>Shraf - Hitler WAS a dictator, and a genocidal one at that.</p>
<p>Ahmadinejad is a mouthpiece for the batsh1t insane mullahs - would you invite, say, Himmler to speak? </p>
<p>And those of you saying that this debate (full of pansy, soft questions, no doubt) is good because it will supposedly help convince neutral Americans that Iran is bad, are essentially claiming that Americans who have so far been completely oblivious to the workings of the Middle East will suddenly tune in to hear him speak at our university; I don't think so. A much better solution, I think, to show Americans the beauty of the Islamic Republic is to run some full page ads in major newspapers showing 16 year olds girls being killed because they were victims of rape.</p>
<p>This event is pointless - nobody will learn anything from it or change their views, and it is ruining the already-tarnished (after the minuteman incident) reputation of Columbia.</p>
<p>"Ahmadinejad is a mouthpiece for the batsh1t insane mullahs - would you invite, say, Himmler to speak?"</p>
<p>DaTurtle, can you please stop comparing people with one another. Not everybodys level of stupidity are the same. Some dictators are far worse than others so to ask "Would you let Himmler speak" is basically comparing Himmler to Ahmadinejad. They are not equal like I keep saying.</p>
<p>Its like saying just because a Lion attacked you and you killed it, you would kill a cat too because it scratched you.</p>
<p>Why wouldn't you invite Himmler? I mean, sure, Himmler has killed more people, but where do you draw the line? Is your free speech banned after killing more than 1,000,000 people? Maybe 2,000,000? </p>
<p>Besides, the Nazi regime started with propoganda - similar to that of Ahmadinejad. Just because Iran doesn't have the capability to destroy every non-Shia country in the world, doesn't mean they wouldn't do so if they had some freakin superweapon.</p>
<p>Americans are pretty oblivious to the Middle East. What's the percentage of Americans who can't find Iran or Iraq on a map?</p>
<p>Something like 20% of Americans can't find the USA on a map, and definitely more can't locate the Middle East, but do you think these people are capable of connecting to the Columbia site, watching a webcast, and then discerning propaganda from logic?</p>