They're someone elses enemy, not mine.

Hope it helps, because it doesn't to millions of people living in their regimes. Authoritarianism apologia is wild.

Not to mention you sidestepped the entire conversation. It sucks for their own people. Their own govt is their enemy - we should be standing next to them, not going "oh yeah you're oppressors of your own people but in my book you're cool because I dislike my own country/Israel/West" or whatever the new excuse is.

If "we" is taken to include the core HN user base (the USofA) then that horse has bolted given the the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the U.S.- and British-instigated, Iranian army-led overthrow of the elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh that more or less kick started the arc toward where Iran-West relations are today.

Did that work well? Should the west keep following a similar course of action?

I am also keenly aware that British Empire involvement started with conquering Palestine & The Balfour Declaration, and ended in the Sergeant's Affair. We have spilled more than enough blood for Zionism and (when we were no longer useful) had our blood spilled by Zionism.

Therefore I reiterate - do not make Iran your enemy on behalf of people who have historically used us as tools to get what they want.