TEHRAN (Press TV) -- It is widely believed that a university is the bastion that houses the best and the greatest of minds and that which produces future leaders.

Yet, the belief was ruefully shattered on Monday September 24 when Mr. Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University proved to the world that a prestigious institute of higher education like Columbia can harbor a man of crooked mindset as the president who can be easily used as a puppet in the hands of those who dictate to him what he should or should not say.
Bollinger, a U.S. Constitution scholar who has led Columbia since 2002, said the university encourages free speech and said bald-facedly, “Let's, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President. You exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” Had he invited the president with the intention of lambasting him? Was the invitation not a mockery of his own rhetoric of free speech? Or was it a mockery of American democracy and free speech?
Was he talking as a world leader to another leader who represents a nation? Did he really contemplate the consequences of his affront and contumely? Did he know that his insult to the president would not only target him but recoil against an entire nation whom he represents?
The fact that Bollinger had invited President Ahmadinejad required him to treat the president with respect and hospitality. However, his attitude was a far cry from hospitality. Instead, Bollinger was discourteous and boorish in manners. In fact, he had an opportunity to show to Iranian people, their president and the whole world what American democracy and free speech really meant. Yet, he squandered the excellent opportunity and helped further tarnish the image of Uncle Sam.
Mr. Bollinger's vitriolic and uncalled for introduction could have been a prelude to further insults if President Ahmadinejad had not shown a great degree of composure and magnanimity.
As a sophisticated person, Bollinger could have used a softer tone and said, “Mr. President, we welcome you here. You represent a land with a great civilization and culture. You come from the land of Cyrus the Great who formulated the first charter on human rights. Since we have some questions on our minds to which we fail to find convincing answers, we beg your permission to let us ask the questions which have long been lingering in our minds. We really hope you will answer them.”
Poor Mr. Bollinger actually played more the part of a neocon than president of a distinguished university did. He was surely put under a lot of pressure by the propagandists and thought police of the American right wing. The plain truth is that an invited Muslim leader was affronted by an academician in a Christian land where love and respect are considered as the most sublime values. This is the way the values are tailored to suit the interests of a police regime.
Brainwashed by the American thought police, he leveled an improper, indecent and unprofessional attack on the Iranian president. The New York Times even praised Bollinger as a paragon of democratic values for his impertinent behavior, writing that he “defended the event as in the best tradition of America's free speech.” American free speech indeed!
Self-righteousness and self-importance are among the traits of American political leaders. However, Mr. Bollinger is no political leader. He is apparently an academician who occupies a very important position in a very prestigious university. He was even once Harvard presidential candidate. His hubris to demonize the Iranian leader caused the loss of the so-called American nobility of mind and manners.
No guest speaker has ever been treated with such contempt and egoistic pomposity in the history of the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University. Mr. Bollinger buckled under political pressure exerted from inside and outside of the university. It should also be noted that Bollinger advocates the David Project. Its website says it is ""committed to building Jewish leadership; increasing the support for Israel on campus; strengthening the pro-Israel and pro-Jewish sentiments and friendships within churches; and working in partnership with Jewish day schools and synagogue after-school programs to incorporate Israel advocacy and leadership skills into their core curricula.""
Now truth is coming to surface. President Ahmadinejad is a denier of the Holocaust. Bollinger was angry because he is a pro-Israeli, a Zionist. The concept of American democracy was lost in the absence of proper treatment of the head of a state, a powerful state which could help the U.S. save face in its humiliating debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan. So things have gone from bad to worse. A fool has cast a rock into the well and a thousand wise men fail to fish it out.
President Ahmadinejad's request to lay a wreath at Ground Zero was turned down by American leaders even before he stepped into the United States. Why? Did they think that the Iranian people were responsible for the September 11 tragedy? Why do the American leaders behave illogically whenever there is a gesture of goodwill on the part of the Iranian leaders? Can it be that Washington officials reserve the World Trade Center site exclusively for reaping the harvest of their own crimes and laying the blame on others?
It is easy to comprehend the scenario choreographed by the American leaders for Ahmadinejad's visit to the United States. One New York newspaper noted Ahmadinejad's arrival with a headline that read: ""The Evil has Landed!"" So, the insulting introduction by Mr. Lee Bollinger was not unexpected. The contrary could have actually amazed the president and his entourage.
Iran has been set in U.S. gun sights because it is seen as an obstacle to the U.S. expansionistic policies in the Middle East and a thorn in the side of the Bush administration which has long started beating the drums of war against Iran but has not yet found any decent excuse to carry out this act. The best policy for them to come closer to their goals in attacking the Islamic Republic is to demonize its president and set the stage for an all-out invasion of the country.
After all, if Bollinger's remark is not an insult to an entire nation represented by its president, what is?
Ismail Salami is the author of 'Iran, Cradle of Civilization' and dozens of articles on Middle East issues