Part-Time Pundit

Columbia was Right in Hosting Ahmadinejad

The controversy surrounding Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia is still roiling the campus and the legislature. Representative Duncan Hunter, a non-factor in the Presidential race, has threatened to cut all federal funding from Columbia for hosting the event. It's just not no-name presidential candidates hungry for airtime that are complaining. Conservative groups across the spectrum are complaining too.

The purpose of a university is the free exchange of ideas. Conservatives, rightly, complain that conservative ideas and ideals are stricken from the marketplace of ideas. This undermines the function of the university, leads to de facto indoctrination, and even causes the atrophy of "liberal" thought because it never has to defend itself. In such a system of censorship, everyone loses.

Here, the tables are turned. The president of Iran, a country we are likely to start bombing in the near future, was given a podium and a microphone on an American college campus. He had to face audience questions (and dodges them like the best of our own politicians). No one confused Ahmadinejad's speech with a political rally.

Now you have "conservatives" who once complained about censorship  seeking to employ their own. It's one thing to disagree with having the speaker; it's another to make the extraordinary and unprecedented threat to strip a university of all federal funding and federal grants. No one has a problem with protests. However, we don't need some politician deciding what does or does not get to be said on a college campus. Hunter, by injecting himself into the debate this way, shows that he has more contempt for the United States, its Constitution and its people than Ahmadinejad.

A college campus exists so that all sides of an issue can be aired and debated. This is not fostered by limiting the information flow on a conflict with Iran to only information released by the White House Press Office. Ahmadinejad is a world leader, a key figure in current events, and he's the exact right person that should be giving a talk or two on a college campus. Students and academics should get the information first-hand, not sifted through the lens of the media.

Academic freedom and free speech in general, have plenty of means at their disposal to deal with unpopular or just flat out wrong ideas. Going hog-wild and shutting down talks because someone denies the Holocaust is what the Europeans do.  It is alien to the ideals this country was founded on. Allowing people to speak freely exposes error far quicker than any government censor would.

In fact, the reasoned people who respect America's founding principles and emphatically reject Ahmadinejad's policy and rhetoric felt no need to start bringing down the hammer on anyone giving him a microphone. This quote from Mike Baker sums it up:

If you’ve heard him talk in the past, you could be pretty confident he was going to maintain his seat on the crazy train. In reality, our best defense against Ahmadinejad is to make sure he always has a microphone in front of him and the cameras are rolling. You would have to be psychotic, heavily medicated or enormously naïve to walk away from that speech thinking "… huh, seems like a reasonable and clever fellow.”

In fact, if he had been allowed to go to Ground Zero and display his antics there, there would be no debate about going to Iran and we'd already be halfway to Tehran by now.

The reality is, no one had to go to this talk. His ideas were forced on no one. People went because they wanted to go and it does not follow that they agree with what he said (I've been to many talks in which I disagreed with the speaker). It's one thing to disagree with those ideas, it's another to stomp your feet and demand censorship. The "conservatives" demanding sanctions on Columbia should spend their time learning the founding principles of this nation they claim they want to conserve.

September 28th, 2007 Posted by John Bambenek | Around the US, Columns, Iran, Politics | 4 comments

Leak of Israel’s Plans to Nuke Iran Smells like BS

Drudge Report is splashing the news that the Sunday Times of London plans on reporting that Israel is planning a nuclear strike against Iran to head off Iran’s nuclear ambitions. According to Drudge:

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, the SUNDAY TIMES of London is planning to report, British media sources tell DRUDGE…

At first glance, the entire story smells of a fabrication. The obvious reason being that if Israel had secret plans to nuke Iran, they likely wouldn’t have been leaked. If they did get leaked, the police better start dredging the Sea of Galilee for the bodies of those involved. More importantly this leak gives huge benefits to Iran.

Israel is not stupid. A tactical nuclear weapon would likely do very little for a protected underground bunker. It is possible that either Drudge or the London Times doesn’t know precisely what a tactical nuclear weapon is. However, the fact remains in order to really do damage to the facility an ICBM (a strategic nuclear weapons) would need to be used. The momentum of a missile coming down from low earth orbit would be necessary to burrow deep enough to do the damage desired. There is indication that even then, the strike might not be successful.

One simulation indicated it would require 400 or so missiles to do the job. At best, entrances and exits from the underground facility could be collapses and that would certainly delay the program. The radiation from the strikes would need to dissipate and the tunnels would have to be rebuilt. It is possible such a strike could be times when Iran’s nuclear weapons were being brought above ground, but that would be extremely difficult to pull off.

Iran’s move to build its nuclear program underground was brilliant. They learned the lessons of Iraq in 1981. However, the key defense of the move is also its biggest weakness. Namely, any nuclear weapon developed underground could not be used until it is brought above ground at already known locations. A nuclear strike at those locations would keep the weapons out of Iranian hands underneath irradiated soil. That move, however, is only a temporary solution.

It is likely that both Israel and the US have drawn up simulations and plans but every indication is that they are a last resort. The other fact is that these plans aren’t precisely secret, at least in general. Leaking the plans now, just shortly after sanctions have been levied against Iran indicate that the plans were likely not coming from Israel.

Iran’s general tactic has been to run the clock and delay as much as possible. This indicates that they are likely very close to being finished making nuclear weapons which would change the dynamics of diplomacy greatly. They have every incentive to keep stalling until they’ve met that landmark.

This plan, being leaked now in the way it was only gives more cover to Iran. The international community and human rights groups will likely jump all over Israel and demand investigations and action. Despite basically looking the other way of actual genocide going on in Darfur, they’ll jump to action on the rumor of a hypothetical “genocide.” We’ll skip past the international community’s non-response over Iran’s very public desire to commit genocide against Israel.

This leaking has every indication that it was done by Iran, or a supporter or Iran, to give more cover and time. While international eyes are peering at Israel, Iran’s program will continue undeterred.

See others: Blogs of war, LGF, Wizbang, Ed Driscoll,

January 6th, 2007 Posted by John Bambenek | International, Iran, Military / War, Politics, Sudan, United Nations | 8 comments

A Portrait of a Human Rights Tragedy

Watch this video and tell me you aren’t outraged by this. I’m not particularly surprised by the treatment in Russia; they haven’t precisely been a beacon of justice and light throughout history. However, the fact that the United Nations, the supposed guardian of Human Rights, has rejected her appeal for asylum speaks more to the ineptness and failure of the entire United Nations enterprise than many other scandals they’ve been involved in. This is what we have the UN for and they don’t want anything to do with it.

As a brief background, Nader Kamalfar and her two children have been living in a transit room at the Moscow Airport for about 75 days. She is an escaped political prisoner of the Iranian regime. When they escaped, they were heading for Germany via Russia and where held up. Originally they were allowed a hotel room in Moscow until, without explanation, they were told they had to stay in the public area of the airport without access to showers or baths. Iran has demanded their return and it appears the Russians may eventually comply. At present, it looks like they may be sent back to Iran as early as November 22nd.

Several organizations are working to try to secure her asylum status in any country that is willing to take her and her children. It’s an international disgrace that it takes this much effort, and that the effort may end up failing, to keep a mother and two children safe.

November 21st, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | International, Iran, Law / Legal Issues, Politics | one comment

Yet Another Great Idea - Are we all Democrats now?

I got an idea on how to deal with Iran!

Let’s give them the same deal that North Korea broke when we gave it to them. We’re only America, of course we should grovel to third-world crackpots!

It’s not like they’ve ever invaded an embassy or anything!

June 6th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Iran, Satire | no comments

Food for Thought - Iran, Israel, and the bomb

The US’s EIA chief has said we can’t get by without Iranian oil. Can we get buy with a nuclear crater that used to be Tel Aviv?

War with Iran may be ugly and require some real sacrifice from the citizens, but if the alternative is sitting on our thumbs when Iran vaporizes Tel Aviv and tells us that they’ve got a nuke pointed at Paris if anyone does anything, then I think I can handle walking to work.

January 21st, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Iran, Military / War, Terrorism | no comments

War With Iran is Coming

The European project has failed. The EU has come out and said that diplomacy has failed and they are referring the matter to the Security Council. There is talk of economic sanctions, but economic sanctions alone have always been useless to deal with problems of this sort (see Cuba).

Make not mistake, Iran is building nukes. The issue would be easily resolved if Iran would allow public inspections of what they are up to and they have refused them. This barely concealed agenda is not lost on the Europeans who may waffle on terrorism are very concerned about weapons proliferation. It’s a question of whether China or Russia will stonewall, but the politics of this situation make it unlikely that either of those superpowers will get themselves alienated so Iran can make nukes and threaten Israel.

The timing of these developments almost sets up an invasion. US troops are already in Iraq, the next nation over, and will be scaling down operations in the coming months. Iraq has elected its own permanent government and as the dust settles, likely so will the terrorist attacks (generated in no small part because of the assistance of Iran). No one seriously would consider attacking Iran without the US onboard, and the US will surely be leading that operation. The EU military certainly isn’t up to the task.

While Iran is doing everything possible to push a confrontation including its saber-rattling towards Israel, there are political downsides domestically. The United States will ramp up for war (this time a globally supported one) during the 2006 election season making the election solely about war which will largely favor Republicans, and rightfully so. However, this will push other political issues back to the background. This shouldn’t be read into such as to assume I’m suggesting this is a big GOP conspiracy, I don’t think that at all.

However, several issues remain on the table, none the least of which is apparent corruption in Congress. With war going on, corruption will get forgotten. While the partisan witch-hunt that has developed is doing nothing to help matters, there are other efforts afoot that could help, such as the pushing of lobbying reform. Social Security will once again be forgotten and will stay unreformed and insolvent. Tax reform will be forgotten. Reforming the non-free market health care system will fall by the wayside.

The fact is being in a solid majority has made the GOP rest on their laurels not pushing for the limited-government conservative ideals that put them in power. War, while seemingly necessary in this case, will exaggerate this problem. The upcoming elections could provide the necessary motivation for the GOP to stand for the principles they enunciate and the unfortunate reality is that if war does come, the reigning-in will most likely be postponed.

January 12th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Iran, Military / War, National, Politics | 3 comments