Are we to blame?

Let's examine this proposition from two perspectives: first, from a liberal internationalist viewpoint, which is to ask how much the world is prepared to tolerate before intervening against regimes that murder and maul their own and other people; second, from the strategic angle, the question of whether, and to what extent, the US-led war in Iraq, by inflaming jihadist sentiment, has contributed to a net deterioration in global security.

Tony Parkinson in today's Age, responding to the chorus that says the West has only itself to blame. Read the rest. (Thanks: IM.)