But this is different.  Bollinger - to the applause of some and the reluctant admiration of many - has taken advantage of the sacrifice of our men and women under arms verbally to slap Ahmadinejad around. 

He forgets that the only thing holding Ahmadinejad in check is our military power (which, in turn, is deployed only by our civil authorities).   His performance, however skilled, was illusory and narcissistic, both for himself and for his admiring audience, precisely because Bollinger and his cultured admirers deliberately forget  that it is not human ideals that defeats human nature, but human ideals given force by political and military institutions that involve sacrifice and danger.  

When these sacrifices are not made, the only eloquence  that  Ahmadinejad  permits are  in his  torture chambers - real torture chambers, ladies and gentlemen, not occasions for the third degree.  In these, any number of his victims might have been just as eloquent as Bollinger, for all we know, but we will never hear their voices.  They don’t have the privilege of Bollinger’s preening.

At Columbia yesterday, Bollingerwas in the position of an effete mob boss in any number of gangster movies - slapping his victim around while the poor guys arms are pinned back.  Ahmadinejad is no hero and no “poor guy,” but that shouldn’t stop us from regarding Bollinger as a weakling, and being rather disgusted by the spectacle.

Sam Schulman
PoliticalMavens.com
9/25/07