[Panther Al]

I always felt that what happened in Iran is one of the biggest missed opertonities in recent memory. Until Saddam invaded it was looking more and more that a reasonable moderate and slightly pro-western government was going to come out of the chaos that was Iran, but to give the devil his due, the play the religious hardliners made when Iraq came over the border was a smart play- put them in the public eye as those that was willing to defend Iran while the reasonable (by western standards) just wanted to talk about things.