I agree to a point TB

The Iranians have a far better defensive setup and their nuclear energy/weapons development appears to be well dispersed.

Unfortunately the "Iranians" don't speak or act in one voice. There are what we would call rogue elements doing things not in the best future interest of the Iranian people.

Religious zealots are always dangerous because when they work out the odds of a gamble they think God will come in on their side.

One Iranian told me that a small group he was part of as a youth held the concept that the Palestinians were to blame for the collective shame visited on all Muslims by the loss of Al Quds and that shame must be wiped away before paradise/Caliphate would come to earth. In his mind that meant an attack on Isreal that would wiped it out and the "weak" Arabs who had let it happen. That was early 90s. That concept is still alive and well at the higher levels of the Iranian power structure.