From Ayatollah Khamenei, we heard that the election dispute was fomented by “enemies” of Islam, foreign powers dominated by “arrogance,” and “Zionists.” The fact that there was high turnout, in and of itself, proves the legitimacy of the elections. He even brought up the 1993 Waco incident, as proof that the U.S. had no moral standing to talk about human rights.

One of the key concerns expressed in recent days was that the U.S. not insert itself in the situation, lest the regime exploit our actions to de-legitimize the domestic opposition. These folks needn’t have worried; President Obama showed great restraint, but the regime still blamed the problem on — to use an analogy from our own history — outside agitators.