Well, I lean much more to the side that blames the great colonial powers (Britain officially, USA unofficially) and the Israelis for the situation...while I do recognize that the fundamentalist rulers of Iran are loose cannons in their own right. But what gets to me is...you can't talk reasonably to a lot of people about such issues. You can't get them to look at it evenhandedly, because they are so wedded to their notion of who the "good guys" are that it colours everything they see in black and white.

It's not that simple.

Iran has been treated in an abominable way in recent history by Britain and the USA. It is not surprising that they now are under a government that is hostile toward the interests of Britain and the USA in that region.

Neither side is composed of a cadre of angels or of nice people who want to help establish universal brotherhood and equality. They are both simply playing to win the game, as they see it.