Why Rejecting Ahmadinejad's Visit Was a Big Mistake

by Sam Sedaei* on Huffington Post

President Ahmadinejad of Iran recently expressed interest in visiting the site of the World Trade Center to "pay tribute" to those who lost their lives on September 11. However, the State Department immediately issued a statement saying that in no way will he be permitted to make such a visit and rebranded him as a state sponsor of terror. Giuliani also issued his own statement - as he often does about everything under the sun these days - expressing his vigorous opposition to such a visit, and out of complete and utter ignorance, unfoundedly accused Shiite Ahmadinejad of supporting Sunni Al Qaeda, a claim so preposterous that even the Bush administration has not made. The main lesson to take from the whole story is not just that Giuliani needs to start reading the foreign policy books that Ron Paul recently recommended to him, but also that after the dust and smoke settle, opposition to visit by Ahmadinejad will prove to be a major foreign policy faux pas.

Read the rest on Huffington Post.

My comment: We are in a battle of ideas - the idea of democracy (the power of the governed) v. all of the ideas of totalitarianism, repression, and state control (the power of the government). The only way to win is to shine a bright light on the ideas so that witnesses around the world can judge the significance and validity the ideas. By refusing Ahmadinejad's request to visit the Ground Zero site, we've missed an opportunity to shine a bright light on his ideas and, in doing so, we've left them to flourish in the darkness. It is the light of day that destroys bad ideas ...

* Sam Sedaei was born in 1982 in Iran. He lived in Tehran until 1999 before immigrating to the United States at age sixteen on his own to explore the American ideals of freedom and democracy.

He did not immigrate to the U.S. because of the height of skyscrapers or might of its military, but for the ideas summed up in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, protecting individuals' rights to free speech and separation of church and state. Having experienced deprivation of his most basic civil liberties for most of his life, he deeply loves America as a beacon of freedom, and believes that that freedom should never be taken for granted.