I must say I'm quite relieved that Jesse Blumenthal CMC '11 and Ian Johnson CMC '09 did not let Imad Moustapha off the hook and prodded him respectfully with rather tough questions. Bravo, gentlemen, you represented Claremont McKenna at her best. Though I could have done without the sycophantic question about how the U.S. could help Syria achieve peace. Sometimes I really wonder about this college.
I've been asked (a lot) on why I did not attend last night's talk, but having read Ilan's post, I should say that I'm rather glad that I was indisposed. Unlike our current president, I won't sit down without preconditions and have dinner or dialogue with the representative of a regime that funds the destruction of Israel and the destablizing of Lebanon, however liberalizing and good that regimes trend lines may have been. I suppose the Mullahs of Iran would have asked for slightly more money and we wouldn't want to be too derivative of Columbia, would we? I'm really breathing easier knowing that our tuition dollars in some sense went to the Syrian regime.
I'm relieved to see that Wes Woods II, a local journalist, has a nice write up on the talk here. I was struck by the following paragraph. It sounded awfully like OJ's promise to find about "the real killers." Here is what he said about the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri by (probably) Syrian agents.
"Here in the U.S., is a powerful pro-Israel lobby," Moustapha said. "These are observations among anti-Syrian circles. They are baseless ... We in Syria believe it serves our national interest to find the truth of that terrible crime."
Good luck, sir. We really believe you.
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