Sorry to butt in, but Ledeen was also supporting Moussavi and Karoubi (aka ‘regime-lite’) post-elections & throughout the 2009 protests in Iran. Moussavi & Karoubi are no different to Khatami. Frankly, Ledeen’s support at the time totally surprised me.
Actually, I’d say ‘regime-lite’ in Islamic Iran equates with ‘islam-lite’ and islam-lite gave us ‘radical-islam’ aka Khomeini.
‘Course many of those who supported islam and Khomeini’s leadership in ‘79, now claim they didn’t know what Khomeini had in mind, or the revolution was hijacked! When people gather on rooftops and shout “allah akbar, death to the Shah”, it should be obvious that the same would support an Islamic gov’t. And, a few others who are either idealists, or simply follow like sheep, hope it’ll give them ‘democracy’ & all the good stuff, which apparently the late-Shah denied them!
Are you familiar with Vali Nasr?
I know you’re not a fan of Ledeen’s, but trying to equate Nasr & Ledeen is absurd.