Even at the zenith of the hostage crisis American ire wasn’t directed at the Iranian people, but at the Ayatollah. That remains the proper target of anti-Iranian sentiment, because it is, plainly, the Mullahs who are anti-Iranian. If they all vanished overnight, there would be an unquenchable party in the streets of Iran that went on for weeks.
Google “night life in Tehran” and you’ll get confirmation in a hurry. There are TWO Irans, and the one the Mullahs run isn’t the popular one.
That's why I get perturbed when I hear people talking about "turning the country into a glass parking lot."