Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, had no reservations when expressing his feelings about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the president of Iran's visit to the university this past week. President Bollinger pointed out that 210 people have been executed in Iran this year - shockingly, two of them were children. On Sept. 5, the nation executed 21 more people in a single day. Iran has hung 30 of its citizens this year on the basis of their attempt to create a more democratic government.
Bollinger's reference to Ahmadinejad as a "petty and cruel dictator" was met with roaring applause, accompanied by loud whistles and cheers from the student body.
It seems ironic that here in America, Ahmadinejad enjoys the same freedom of speech that he withholds from his own people in Iran. The press in Iran is forbidden from analyzing and criticizing the Iranian government and is punished harshly if they do so.
Ahmadinejad's restrictions on his people are harsh, and his evil dictatorship is not very different from Stalin and the Iron Curtain. He is Hitler reincarnated in a Persian body. Ahmadinejad has even denied the Holocaust happened on many occasions, and for someone who has total and complete control of the media and 65.4 million people, you can see how this is very scary. This man brainwashes his people with hatred towards all other religions. These people are Islamic extremists, the same type of people who have been waging war on America and the rest of the world for decades. These extremists look at all other people as infidels who must be converted or murdered. They wish to wipe out all those who oppose them and their beliefs.
They spew "Death to America" and use propaganda on the Iranian people to make them believe what they choose to tell them. The Islamic extremists use propaganda on children, teaching them songs about killing Jews and destroying Western civilization. These practices appear not only in Iran, though, for this happens in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and may other countries in the Middle East.
In Iran, for example, one such "investigative report" on Iranian television was preaching the evils of Israel and American business. The program stated that "Coca-Cola, besides its clear continuous support of the Israeli government, had announced its willingness to invest billions of dollars to topple the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Another propaganda-fueled TV program in Iran stated that Pepsi stands for "Pay Each Penny Save Israel." There are thousands upon thousands of TV programs just as shocking as those previously mentioned that the Islamic extremists in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries are utilizing as mind-controlling propaganda.
The fact that the Iranian government can use these types of ridiculous propaganda commercials to brainwash and control their people is ludicrous and needs to be stopped, by any force necessary. The Western world - this includes Europe - is on a collision course with Iran. It's not a matter of if something will happen, it's when. If Iran possesses a nuclear weapon via Russia, North Korea or by making it themselves, they would more than likely use it to attack Israel, the United States or any other country that does not convert and concur with their demands. Iran is not the only problem, however, there are many other countries with huge clusters of extremists. It will come down to them versus the rest of humanity.
Ben Schwarzwalder is a senior in journalism. He can be reached at schwarzwalder.3@osu.edu.
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