[dundarious]

The US has been propping up (mostly secular, but not exclusively) authoritarian regimes, and instigating coups, since at least the 1950s -- either to guarantee favorable terms for oil or shipping, or to destroy local communist/socialist/not-capitalist-enough movements.

One of Chomsky's oft-repeated facts is that Eisenhower commissioned a report while president, to figure out why is the US hated so much on "the Arab street" (but presumably including Iran, etc.)? The report concluded that the US is perceived to have installed and propped up authoritarians, and generally to have meddled in internal affairs and elections, and what's more that it's all pretty much true. I never found the report he's referencing, but you can easily find info about meddling, even on CIA's own website (pre-revamp), such as an internal CIA historian's favorable review of a history of their commission of the Iran coup.

I think this has to be taken into account when trying to explain the current dynamics.