The Ahmadinejad visit to Columbia (which gave the Iranian president more publicity and in a certain ugly way also more credibility) has also crystallized for many why the man is so evil. Yes, even though it takes a bit of guts to use a word that George Bush also used, I do mean evil. Ron Rosenbaum has explored in his own blog the rationale of those who think we should assume that the president of Iran is just another slightly misguided person and that he is amenable to changes of the heart and mind. Rosenbaum characterizes Iranian rule as that of a "theocratic Stasi-like state." It is an ingenuous and apt analogy. But I suspect Tehran is worse than East Berlin was, if a bit less dreary on the margins. In any case, Rosenbaum is a very intelligent and informed journalist, and he has two other articles to commend. One is by Robert Tait in the Observer, what Rosenbaum calls a "harrowing account" of an Iranian student's punishment for dangerous thoughts. The second one is by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. She seems to have been one of the very few who truly listened to what Ahmadinejad was saying. She doesn't think he exaggerates or speaks in hyperbole or even talks either strategically or tactically. This is what he believes, and if you think that his Iran is building a bomb for anything other than an Islamic war against the West you are counting sheep until you sleep. One thing about Glick as a journalist, she has decided to believe what the enemy says. And she has been right.