The current kerfluffle over Adhmadinejad’s proposed pilgrimage to Ground Zero shows once again how bad ideas drag us irresistibly to bad policy. Having refused for nearly thirty years to deal with the reality that Iran declared war on us in 1979 and has been waging it ever since, we are now acting as if Iran were just another country and its president therefore entitled to all the usual courtesies for visiting foreign dignitaries. Ergo, Secret Service protection, normal protocol, the niceties of “international law,” blah blah.
So long as we continue to delude ourselves about the nature of the Iranian regime, we will continue to tie ourselves in strategic and diplomatic knots, and eventually to the terrible policy options (appease them or bomb them) about which we’ve heard so often in recent months, most recently from the French foreign minister.
As for Columbia University, one can only propose the Chamberlain Award for Exceptional Appeasement.