It seems that this speech has worked nicely in Aahmadinejad's favor despite the insults he recieved. The man is, sadly, briliant in his ability to manipulate. He is delibeately inciting all this negative talk against himself in order to strengthen his position within Iran.
The Iranian people are not currently happy with him, but the more the West, and the United States in particular, instults him, the more support he gets back home. Despite how unpopular he is among Iranians, they are still not going to be alright with the West insulting their President. This is the same exact thing that we saw happen during the war with Iraq. The country rallied behind a governemnt it would not have otherwise supported because they saw a greater external threat.
It's also very interesting to note that there is no substantial backlash from Western media regaurding the poor introduction Ahmadinejad was given.
I think that the way Lee Bollinger treated President Aahmadinejad at Columbia University was both extremely disrespectful and unnecessary. Although the things that Bollinger said may be true, it was not right of him to disrespect Aahmadinejad the way that he did. In most other cultures guests are treated with the utmost kindness and civility; we must not forget that Aahmadinejad was invited to speak, and was therefore first and foremost a guest to Columbia University and the United States.
I also think that the way that Aahmadinejad was treated will make the United States even more disliked on the international level. It will definitely have a backlash of causing the Iranian people to support their President's image because, of course, no one likes to be insulted by "outsiders", especially an international bully like the U.S.
It is unfortunate that Lee Bollinger did not think of the negative impact that his comments could have on his school's image and on his country's reputation before he chose to say them.
Not a bad article. Honestly, Bollinger's welcome was outright unacceptable. Like Marko said, some of the rude things about Ahmadinejad could be accurate, but that does NOT excuse the disrespectful welcome he received...
Whether or not Ahmadinejad is seen as good or bad, he is still President of Iran and represents that country. By disrespecting him, Bollinger is directly disrespecting the people of Iran.
Don't all world leaders have some sort of flaws people can call out? I'm sure Bollinger has a couple skeletons in his closet as well. The point I'm attempting to make is, regardless of Ahmadinejad's occasional socially "unacceptable" behavior, he should be treated with the same respect as any other President.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a supporter of Ahmadinejad. In fact, I don't agree with a lot of his ideals...But once again, he is the President of a nation of 70 Million...
The degradation of his character can be attributed mainly to the media's biased portrayal of him, every time he's on TV. This is why I hate politics and am as apathetic as can be!
3 comments:
It seems that this speech has worked nicely in Aahmadinejad's favor despite the insults he recieved. The man is, sadly, briliant in his ability to manipulate. He is delibeately inciting all this negative talk against himself in order to strengthen his position within Iran.
The Iranian people are not currently happy with him, but the more the West, and the United States in particular, instults him, the more support he gets back home. Despite how unpopular he is among Iranians, they are still not going to be alright with the West insulting their President. This is the same exact thing that we saw happen during the war with Iraq. The country rallied behind a governemnt it would not have otherwise supported because they saw a greater external threat.
It's also very interesting to note that there is no substantial backlash from Western media regaurding the poor introduction Ahmadinejad was given.
I think that the way Lee Bollinger treated President Aahmadinejad at Columbia University was both extremely disrespectful and unnecessary. Although the things that Bollinger said may be true, it was not right of him to disrespect Aahmadinejad the way that he did. In most other cultures guests are treated with the utmost kindness and civility; we must not forget that Aahmadinejad was invited to speak, and was therefore first and foremost a guest to Columbia University and the United States.
I also think that the way that Aahmadinejad was treated will make the United States even more disliked on the international level. It will definitely have a backlash of causing the Iranian people to support their President's image because, of course, no one likes to be insulted by "outsiders", especially an international bully like the U.S.
It is unfortunate that Lee Bollinger did not think of the negative impact that his comments could have on his school's image and on his country's reputation before he chose to say them.
Not a bad article. Honestly, Bollinger's welcome was outright unacceptable. Like Marko said, some of the rude things about Ahmadinejad could be accurate, but that does NOT excuse the disrespectful welcome he received...
Whether or not Ahmadinejad is seen as good or bad, he is still President of Iran and represents that country. By disrespecting him, Bollinger is directly disrespecting the people of Iran.
Don't all world leaders have some sort of flaws people can call out? I'm sure Bollinger has a couple skeletons in his closet as well. The point I'm attempting to make is, regardless of Ahmadinejad's occasional socially "unacceptable" behavior, he should be treated with the same respect as any other President.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a supporter of Ahmadinejad. In fact, I don't agree with a lot of his ideals...But once again, he is the President of a nation of 70 Million...
The degradation of his character can be attributed mainly to the media's biased portrayal of him, every time he's on TV. This is why I hate politics and am as apathetic as can be!
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