I don't think I've agreed with George W. Bush, since, oh, somewhere around September 12, 2001. But, yesterday, it seemed that we were back on the same team again.
He told Fox News that Columbia University's giving a podium and a microphone to Iranian President Ahmadinejad "speaks volumes about really the greatness of America. We’re confident enough to let a person come and express his views. "
Even though Ahmadinejad is a certifiable crank with pretensions to restore the Persian Empire (this time armed with nuclear weapons) Americans shouldn't be afraid of hearing what he has to say. Truth is never afraid of lies, light is never beholden to darkness.
And, as George and I hoped, Ahmadinejad revealed to all the world just why America shouldn't be afraid of him. He said that the Holocaust should be taught as a "theory" not a fact. He said that there are no homosexuals in Iran. And he said that politicians who are seeking nuclear weapons are retarded. Really.
America is great, not because America is good (as de Tocqueville famously did not say), but because America is founded on self-evident truths. Because America is less a nation than an idea, a grand notion of human equality and justice for all. And because we will even listen to the ideas of a man as demonstrably pathetic as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Yesterday, I was proud of my President and I felt sorry for the Iranians.
But today, of course, all that changed. George W. Bush is going to veto the SCHIP reauthorization bill. George, like his alter ego Mahmoud, can't stay rational for long.
1 comment:
Check yahoo email. NVB
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