President Hassan Rouhani of Iran delivered a searing indictment of Western and Arab states on Thursday in his annual speech to the United Nations, blaming them for sowing the seeds of extremism in the Middle East with "strategic blunders" that have given rise to the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups.
Well at least he didn't isolate the United States in his accusation. Because, let's everybody face it, our repeated invasions of the Middle East; our bombings; our occupations; our scheming and intrigues; our removal of democratically elected governments; our propping up of ruthless dictatorships; our playing of one ruthless dictator off another; our occasional references to "crusades"; our corporate exploitations; our relentless support of a regional, apartheid-inflicting theocracy that is universally detested by Arabs; and in general our precipitous meddling in the Middle East have all been executed with the best of intentions and nobody should say otherwise. Which, thankfully, Rouhani did not.