Editorial: Nutty is not the word

Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger came under heavy and understandable criticism Monday for having invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on campus to speak as part of the school's World Leaders Forum.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, though, had this reasonable response: "Without listening to Ahmadinejad, how can the world appreciate how truly nutty he is?"

It was a provocative question, but incomplete. Ahmadinejad is beyond nutty. He is dangerous, both toward his own people and the world. With the full backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad presides over a government whose ideology enforces extreme repression internally and embraces plans for extreme aggression externally.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have documented the internal repressions, and Ahmadinejad himself has demonstrated external aggression, most notoriously by calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

U.S. intelligence agencies have also found strong evidence that Iran has supplied weapons to our enemies in Iraq, weapons that have been used to kill U.S. troops.

Monday, during his speech, Ahmadinejad certainly revealed his true self, continuing with his contemptuous theme that the Holocaust never happened and denying lethal repressions against gays and lesbians by saying, "We don't have homosexuals like in your country."

As Ahmadinejad spoke to the United Nations on Tuesday, the House voted to tighten sanctions against Iran. It was an appropriate response to the words of this reprehensible world leader.