Do they have supporters? Sure they have.
But Iranians as a whole, particularily the societal sections which are now protesting (young, urban, well educated and secular) are very pro-American, as are many of the upper middle class of the older generation (those who were the base of the Shah regime).
Having lived in Iran and having Iranians in my extended family I can positively attest that the meme that anti-Americanism is dominant among them is patently false. And I am not just talking about some exiled monarchists who have no contact to Iran anymore.
Are there nutty anti-Americans? Sure as heck. But are there many pro-Americans? Absolutely.
And regardless of their stance towards US or the West... dislike for the arch-foe Russia (historically the real enemy of Iran for ages) and the repressive mullah regime cannot be underestimated at any rate.
Iranians have a long memory when it comes to history. It was Russia that grabbed Iranian territory in the 18th and 19th century, it was Russia that waged a cruel war against Iran's Constitutionalists at the turn of the century, it was Russia that tried to make North Iran Communist after WW1 and WW2... and it was Russia that througout the Cold War threatened to invade Iran.
When I was in Iran 1978 the fear everyone had was that the Russians are going to make Iran an "Soviet Iranistan".
I hope you are right that most Iranians are pro American. I hope they can come to power but I tend to doubt they mullahs can be overthrown. For all the Russians have done to them it will be us who turns their country into a field of glass when they nuke us. It’s not “if” it’s “when”.
Tehran's streets erupt after a key cleric speaks- Rafsanjani's harsh rebuke of Ahmadinejad ...
This is getting BIG!!