Let’s acknowledge that the Ahmadinejad event at Columbia was a huge success, which does indeed prove that debate and dialogue work. It’s just that the debate in question wasn’t between Bollinger and Ahmadinejad. The debate that mattered was the one between Bollinger and his American critics. Once Bollinger was called out on the blunder of his invitation, he was forced to redeem himself by publicly speaking the truth about Ahmadinejad. The real success of that event was Bollinger’s introduction, and it happened before Ahmadinejad said a word.

As Rich points out today, the reality of Iran–the threat it poses and the despicable nature of its policies–is something that the American left would prefer not to emphasize. But having proffered an ill-conceived invitation, and then having been widely challenged on his bad judgement, Bollinger was forced to speak out loud many of the truths that the left in this country would rather avoid. That is indeed a most fortunate outcome. The reality of the Iranian regime and its threat have been thrust into the foreground, and a prominent spokesman for the American left has acknowledged this reality on record, in a way that no respectable player can now deny.

It shouldn’t have been necessary to invite Ahmadinejad to Columbia to get the left half of America’s political spectrum speaking more honestly about the challenge we face in Iran. The evidence to justify Bollinger’s remarks was available well before Ahmadinejad spoke, and Bollinger himself pointedly predicted that there would be little in the way of a serious or substantive reply forthcoming. Yet the unfortunate fact is that it took a naive invitation from the academic left, followed by biting criticism from the right, to finally elicit an honest acknowledgment of the truth. Dialogue and debate really do work, but the dialogue that counted most was our own–not the shadow-play with Ahmadinejad.

It’s true that Ahmadinejad’s own blundering and ridiculous talk added to the outrage at his policies. Yet Ahmadinejad’s capacity to spout nonsense was well known before hand. After all, Bollinger’s opening remarks were based on Ahmadinejad’s offensive track-record. Again, the novelty yesterday was not anything Ahmadinejad said, but the fact that umbrage on the right finally prompted eyes to open on the left. In effect, public outrage over Bollinger’s invitation allowed the media to force a left-right dialogue onto a university that usually avoids precisely that sort of exchange. If thoughtful representatives of a broad spectrum of opinion had been available at Columbia all along, however, it wouldn’t have required the Ahmadinejad circus to make such a breakthrough.