Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The Stanford Daily

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Tuesday October 2, 2007






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Page Two


Debates on political visits



Across nation, college campuses alive with debates on politics, free speech

October 2, 2007
By Patrick K. Fitzgerald "Last week’s visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University brought the debate over campus politics and academic freedom — a debate already brewing at Stanford since the Hoover Institution announced the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as a distinguished visiting fellow in mid-September — to the national spotlight."

Ted Rudow III,MA
One can call Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad many things, but a dictator he is not. He doesn’t even have the power to appoint his own cabinet ministers. It’s a presidency with very limited power. And to claim that he is in a position to threaten the United States or Israel is just bizarre.

The Israelis and the pro-Israel interest in the United States have lobbied to make sure that there is no dialogue or there’s no rapprochement between the United States and Iran. And the Iranians have done similar things. They have undermined every U.S. initiative in the Middle East they feared would be beneficial to Israel.

The U.S. isn’t really against terrorists; it’s just against terrorists who aren’t its friends and allies. After all, if it were against terrorists, it would be against Israel, against the various Israeli governments that have thrown the Palestinians off their land and seized it.
Ted Rudow III,MA

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