This recent article contains this quote by Amil Imani:

In 1979, the U.S. Government, notably, Jimmy Carter and company, with the help of its allied forces created the greatest Islamic terrorist nation on the face of the earth and the rise of Islamofascisim elsewhere. In fact, Jimmy Carter by his mere interference in another country betrayed the most valued friend the West ever had, the late Shah of Iran, and he is perhaps responsible for the formation of Islamic terrorism, not only in Iran, but around the world, including the United States.

What a silly game: "Which U.S. President is responsible for the rise and spread of jihad?"

"Was it George W. Bush, for enraging the Islamic world by invading Iraq and Afghanistan, and starting the 'Religion of Peace' meme?  Was it Bill Clinton, for failing to kill Osama Bin Laden after the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Africa?  Was it Ronald Reagan, for arming the mujahadeen in the Soviet-Afghan war, or for arming the Iranians in the Iran-Contra escapades?  Was it Jimmy Carter, for allowing the Shah of Iran to be replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini?  Was it Richard Nixon (and Henry Kissinger), for denying Israel it's full victory in the Yom Kippur War?"  Everyone can play along at home, everyone has their parochial political axe to grind.

Of course it's just silliness, since no U.S. President caused jihad.  Only Mohammad and the Allah he invented caused jihad.  While the jihadis get stronger and their attacks kill more infidels, the infidels blame each other and try to make domestic political points.  All modern U.S. Presidents have failed miserably to recognize and deal with jihad.  Our policy (or lack thereof) regarding jihad has been amazingly consistent across successive Administrations, regardless of political affiliation: blame Israel, "f**k the Jews", get rid of this or that dictator, increase jizya, win hearts and minds.   Above all, don't mention Islam; if anything, explicitly forbid any reference to Islam.

Kufirs assigning blame to the kufirs for the actions of Muslims.  It's a silly, silly game.

And yet I'm a silly, silly git, without the common sense G*d gave a camel, so I'll play along.  Which U.S. President should we blame for the rise of jihad?  How about Herbert Hoover?  He's as good a candidate as any.  After all, he was the President who stood by as Abdul-Aziz bin Saud conquered the Arabian Peninsula (with the help of the British Army) and founded the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, in the aftermath of WWI.  What's that?  How could Hoover have known that 69 years later, Saudi men inspired by their religion would hijack jetliners and fly them into skyscrapers?   Remember that Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, and John Quincy Adams all wrote very clearly about Islam and the role that it plays in jihad.  No, the perils of Islam were clear to those who paid attention.  Ignorance is no defense.  And Saudi Arabia's oil reserves were not discovered until 1938, so they had little influence over us.  Hoover allowed the most devout Muslim state, the most rabidly proselytising Muslim state, to come into power without so much as a diplomatic "boo!".  The Great Depression started during his Administration, and he left office as the "most despised man in American,"  so I say we hop aboard the blame bandwagon.  Everything the Saudis have done since then is laid at the feet of Herbert Hoover.  If only he had overthrown Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, Islam would have become a peaceful, tolerant religion.

The admiration of the Western media for the rugged and mysterious Arabs also goes back to the 1930's.  Here are some quotes from the May 14, 1934 article in Time magazine about the rise of Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, and the Saudi-Yemeni war of 1934.  Note how little things have changed in the interim:  fawning articles about Muslim despots, institutional bribery and corruption, intra-Islamic warfare, blaming the kufirs for the failures of the Arab states, romanticising the treatment of women in Islam, constantly-shifting allegiances among the Arab states, clever kufir politicians who think they are playing the Great Game, and so on;  it's all there.

When the Arab tribes were bribed to intensify their revolt against Turkey during the War, they were definitely promised a chance to develop either an Arab Confederation or a single Arab Kingdom of their own. Realists well knew that the Allies would not like the idea of a new nation, one third as big as all Europe, blocking the way to India and the East, but the Arabs believed the Wartime promise. So did the mysterious Colonel Lawrence until his disgust at the duplicity of politicians caused him to flee theatrically from the world.

[...]

There remained the vast desert heft of the rest of Arabia. To prevent even this from attaining true unity, it was divided into various territories: the Kingdom of the Hejaz, the principalities of Asir and Yemen, the British-controlled Hadramaut, Oman on the tip of the Persian gulf, and Nejd, the great central core. What they did not reckon on was the mettle of the man who had already won for himself part of this dusty district — Ibn Saud, ruler of the Nejd. Abdul Aziz ibn Abdur Rahman Al Faisal Al Saud, Knight Grand Commander of the Indian Empire, better known as Ibn Saud, is a towering figure, 6 ft. 4 in. in his sandals. His simplest method of holding tribal loyalties is to marry the sheik's daughter. He has taken to wife over 100 of them in the past ten years, divorced most of them (no disgrace in Arabia). Because he has given up camels for fast bullet-proof motor cars in conducting desert warfare, his favorite wives follow the flag in a close-shuttered regulation police van or pie wagon, safe from prying eyes. Ever since the War Ibn Saud has been fighting to extend his realm. By 1925 he had completed conquest of the Hejaz which contains the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, winning at the same time his greatest source of income, a toll on Mohammedan pilgrims. In 1926 the principality of Asir accepted his suzerainty and the following year Britain signed a treaty recognizing the complete independence of Ibn Saud's domains. (From 1917 to 1923 Britain paid him a total of £542,000 in subsidies "that he be guided generally by the wishes of His Majesty's Government in regard to his foreign policy.")

[...]

Elderly Yahya, the Imam of Yemen, is as crafty and penny pinching as strapping Ibn Saud is brave and generous. Where the latter won sheiks' loyalties by marrying their daughters, Yahya the Imam kidnapped his sheiks' children and held them as hostages. The latest dispute over the unmapped boundary between Yemen and Asir has been going on for two years, complicated by the fact that last year the Idrissi of Asir, repenting his surrender to Ibn Saud, fled over the border to join Yahya the Imam.

[...]

Meanwhile muffled Bedouin riflemen, deserting the Imam's army, broke into the bazaars of Hodeida and looted lustily. About 300 foreigners were in the city, mostly British Indians. Before the Saudite troops entered, the greater portion had fled to the nearby island of Kamaran. With the victorious troops in Hodeida, the Emir Feisal, Ibn Saud's second son and Foreign Minister, assured the world that sacking was over and the city quite safe for foreigners. His potent father, he said, had already picked him as the next King of Yemen. Then the Saudite horsemen swept inland toward the thick, sloping walls of Sana.

Deplore foxy Yahya as she might, Britain was worried. If Yemen falls, only Oman on the Persian Gulf will remain independent territory, and the fame of hard-riding Ibn Saud will blaze high in the Moslem world, not only in British-controlled Aden, Irak and Palestine, but also in the Sudan across the Red Sea. Refueling at Aden, the cruiser Enterprise, one of the fastest in the British navy, tore on toward Hodeida. Word reached British authorities in Aden that among the Saudite loot in Hodeida were great quantities of Italian-made munitions. The Red Sea is only 100 miles wide at Hodeida, and on the other side lies only partially pacified Italian Eritrea. Blushing at having backed the wrong horse, Italy dispatched the destroyer Turbine. France, too, was on the defensive, fearful lest the exploits of Ibn Saud, keenest sword of Allah, put wayward ideas in the heads of her Mohammedan tribes.

Not to worry, Britain.  Foxy Yahya lived to fight another inward struggle for self-improvement.  And brave, strapping, generous ibn Saud, keenest sword of Allah, outflanked the duplicitous Allies' attempts to deny the Arabs their promised Kingdom.