> This is how it was under the shah, until 1979.

Sort of? The US played a role in that shit show and it wasn’t all happy days under the Shah.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution

Not "happy", but Iran was quite a bit more sober, not hostile towards Israel, and relatively secular.

(Similarly, China under Deng Xiaoping was not a paragon of political freedom at all, but it was quite a bit more sober than under Mao Zedong. The US administration had tons of shortcomings under president Biden, but it was in quite a bit less of disarray than under president Trump.)