"The best we can hope is an Islamic Republic that is not hostile to the United States."
Name one or more of those.
Name any islamic republics not hostile to things non-islamic?
Bottom line: The double whammy of arab and islamic means small chance for modern, civil democratic society, at peace within and without.
Well, it would not be the Shiite part of a divided Iraq. The Constitution already provides for the establishment of Islam. There is a possibility that so long as the country hangs together that anti-Persian Shiites can balance the power of the pro-Persian ones.