Iran should die. Seriously.

[A Black Falcon]

Pakistan probably wouldn't elect extremists either, but that's not in the Middle East either, even if it is Muslim... there is a strong radical presence in part of the Pakistani mountains, but the majority of the population isn't on their side. As for Iran though, hey, this is what we wanted... in the Cold War we supported anyone, brutal dictator or no, as long as they said they were anti-Communist. So we supported the Shah in Iran, and he had secret police and the like and was hated by his people. Should it really have been surprising when the people revolted and overthrew him (in 1979), with how much they hated him? In many ways the current state of Iran is a problem we created ourselves...

Of course, the same thing is true in Afghanistan (we helped incite the Soviet invasion, then abandoned the place once the USSR collapsed, and pretty much ignored it while the Taliban took over until Al Quaida attacked us, when we put back in the old warlords... yeah, that's going well.), but that's how things are...

Anyway, as far as Iran goes, you're right, it's a tough situation since the population's beliefs are so clearly not in line with what the religious leaders are saying, yet there is so little we can do... invade and we'd unite them against us, whether or not they actually hate us. We also would never win... it'd essentially be handing over a major victory to the religious leadership in Iran, which obviously is a bad idea. But reform isn't happening there either, since any change has to get through the religious bureaucracy which opposes it... so things are pretty much paralyzed.