One of the most remarkable aspects of the current conflict with militant Islam is the way in which it has revealed the self-loathing that runs through so much of the western intelligentsia.

Here’s Roberto Benigni, the actor/director of Life is Beautiful. Now he’s making a movie about the Iraq war. The BBC has more.

“In a further interview on Italian Rai TV, Benigni criticised the West’s role in the Iraq violence. “Westerners are running the show, all of those doing these things have studied in the West, it is not the Easterners. We know how many dreams the East gives, and how grateful we are to the East and love all its beautiful things.”

What a statement. Not only is it utterly inaccurate, it also simultaneously manages to denigrate the West and patronize the East. Its real objective? To show Benigni’s moral superiority over the rest of us.