N Korea is indeed a psychotic state, it will do anything, even risk provoking a nuclear war it knows will destroy it, rather than give up power. Iran OTOH, is not. It is trying to further itself at the expense of its neighbors (as is every other country on the planet, to some extent). It is also surrounded by enemies and it is on bad terms with the biggest superpower in history.

That does not mean they are poor, misunderstood innocents, by any means. And it does not mean they are right, or their actions are justified, or that we should ignore our interests and leave them alone. But neither are they the great Satan or bug-eyed loonies. They are trying to get the most they can by playing this hand with their best cards. And what they want is something we do not want them to have, to let them dominate the oil depot of the industrial world.

The Iranian bomb, or their threat of it, is their ace in the hole, but it is also their bluff card. Without it we could sooner or later tell them what to do and they'd have no choice but to comply. And they don't want to be in that position any more than we would.

We cannot afford to see the world in terms of good and evil, or we will keep getting into the mess we're in now. But we can't afford to look at ourselves that way either. We have a reight to pursue our interests just like every other country does, and we need not apologize to anyone. And there is indeed good and evil. That never changes