Smooth-Talking Kook

Iran's President Ahmadinejad-who denies the Holocaust and Israel's right to exist-has received an invitation to speak at Columbia University. Columbia officials say it is a "free speech" issue. Lovely. I wonder when an Iranian university will reciprocate with George W. Bush? Oh, yes-they don't have free speech-at least not much of it-in Iran. Thousands are languishing in political prisons in Iran right now because they dared to speak out against Ahmadinejad's corrupt regime.

If Ahmadinejad were a U.S. citizen, the kindest thing we could say about him is that he's a smooth-talking kook, on the level of David Duke. But since he is the titular head of Iran and seemingly hell-bent on pursuing nuclear weapons, we give him a gold-lettered, embossed invitation to speak in one of our most prestigious universities. Haven't we learned anything about appeasing dictators?