Whoever controls the public discourse gains in the long run. What do you think Iran would look like today if local information policies hadn't been counterbalanced by the internet for the last ten years?

I distinctly remember The Daily Show sending somebody to Teheran to ask people in the street if they new the show and they found quite a bunch who said yes!

So IMO you are right, but only as long as Iran is well-integrated in the internet. Guess which 5% of Iran realized this recently.

This is a fantasy pushed by people (contractors) trying to justify invasion. The majority of the college educated professional middle class in Iran likes traditional US rhetoric about democracy, capitalism, and our particular list of individual civil liberties.

Not only are the professional middle class not a majority of the population, and within them are not unanimous about US-style government, but to say that they like the actual US and its actual current behavior is IMO an unsustainable stretch.

It always has to be remembered that it was largely the religious extremists of Iran that freed Iran from the yoke of the US - who might have believed in democracy for itself, but not for Iran.

Do you have a credible source for this? Because nowdays, even Germans consider the US a bigger threat than Iran.