Columbia Prof Tries Odd Viet Defense

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/72431.htm
COLUMBIA PROF TRIES ODD VIET DEFENSE

By FREDRIC U. DICKER, DANIEL SCHIFF and RITA DELFINER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



April 1, 2003 -- A Columbia University professor who wants to see U.S. troops suffer "a million Mogadishus" in Iraq defended his stand yesterday - and dug his hole a little deeper.
In his latest remarks, Assistant Professor Nicholas De Genova said he believes that ultimately what has to happen in Iraq is "more like another Vietnam."

"Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism," he declared in a letter to the editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator.

The anthropology and Latino-studies professor was unavailable for comment as controversy raged over his "Mogadishu" remark last week at a Columbia "teach-in." He was referring to the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident in which 18 GIs were slain in Somalia.



Gov. Pataki, a graduate of Columbia Law School, "believes De Genova's comments are a disgrace. He was appalled," his spokeswoman said. "It's one thing to oppose the war, and another thing to wish harm on our soldiers and cheer for their defeat."

De Genova, in his letter to the Spectator, said the newspaper - which first reported his remarks - took them out of context when it quoted his comment about Mogadishu but not "the perspective that framed" it.

He said he had pointed out that Iraqi liberation can only be achieved by the Iraqi people themselves, "both by resisting and defeating the U.S. invasion, as well as overthrowing a regime whose brutality was long sustained by none other than the U.S."

"Such an anti-colonial struggle for self-determination might involve a million Mogadishus now, but would ultimately have to become something more like another Vietnam," he wrote.