please stop your America-centric view world
look at how Iran is funding terrorist groups that brutally oppress people in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Syria is murky because they back the "official" government.
Just keep in mind the world is big and America is small and viewing the whole world in orange-man-bad shades is a really simplistic model and very very wrong
edit - example: read your last sentence:
"except for the religious right and arms manufacturers"
- religious right: actually don't care much about Iran, they supported the christians Armenia over the Shia Azerbaijan 2 months ago. Secular Assad over islamist (insert 20 Al Qaeda variations). So no, Iran (and its government) shouldn't hated by the religious right
- arms manufacturers: a stronger Iran = arms race in Mid East = more sales to Irans neighbors. So relaxing sanctions will be booming business for them
look at how Iran is funding terrorist groups that brutally oppress people in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Syria is murky because they back the "official" government.
Just keep in mind the world is big and America is small and viewing the whole world in orange-man-bad shades is a really simplistic model and very very wrong
edit - example: read your last sentence: "except for the religious right and arms manufacturers"
- religious right: actually don't care much about Iran, they supported the christians Armenia over the Shia Azerbaijan 2 months ago. Secular Assad over islamist (insert 20 Al Qaeda variations). So no, Iran (and its government) shouldn't hated by the religious right
- arms manufacturers: a stronger Iran = arms race in Mid East = more sales to Irans neighbors. So relaxing sanctions will be booming business for them