This weekend’s Corner smackdown between Jonah and Juan Cole was great. Jonah definitely knows how to take care of himself. But imagine what it’s like for a student who supports American foreign policy to face Juan Cole in the classroom. Now imagine a university where students are left to face a department of Middle Eastern Studies where virtually every professor is a Juan Cole clone. (Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Just read this New York Magazine article about Columbia University’s Middle East Studies program.) Now imagine an entire academic field where nearly every professor is like Juan Cole. You don’t have to imagine that either, since Juan Cole is president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), and really does embody the views of America’s professors of Middle East Studies. (For my own clash with Juan Cole, see “Getting Nervous?”)

So my question is, why is Jonah (and every taxpaying reader of The Corner) subsidizing Juan Cole and all of his friends to the tune of millions of dollars a year? Supposedly we’re doing it so that the students Juan and his friends train in Middle East languages and cultures will serve in our defense and intelligence agencies. But in reality, MESA does everything it can to stop students from serving the federal government. Meantime, Congress insists that as a condition of taking government money, Juan and his crew have to create outreach programs to teach our K-12 teachers about the Middle East. You can imagine how “fair and balanced” those programs are. So this year, when we go to war again with MESA over legislation to reform Title VI subsidies to programs of Middle East studies, I hope folks will remember that this battle is about Juan Cole and his crew. They’re entitled to their free speech, but they’re not entitled to our money.