I asked an Iranian coworker if the Iranian government is serious or if it's just a bad translation when we hear them call America and Israel "the Great Satan". Apparently they are entirely sincere about that.
If this was a game of telephone, yours would be the mildest interpretation I can imagine of my conversation went with my coworker, but my main impression from them was the Iranian theocracy sees the US as the actual literal devil incarnated.
Ah, ok, I thought you were suggesting what Iran thought of the US, I didn't realise it was an old quote from a famous person.
Looking up the quote, Regan was talking about the USSR? If so I think it may be stronger than that sentiment, but I'm not 100% sure owing (in addition to the previous point about games of telephone) to not having lived through the worst of the Cold War — and the small bit I did live through before the USSR collapsed was entirely in the UK and my experience as a child contained more fear of the IRA than the USSR as the IRA were in the news while the USSR were, (like the Klingons that were a thin analogy for them), only in films and on TV.
yes, but regaining democracy is a hard battle. So, when you destroy it in the first time, it is not a surprise that warlords keep getting control of power till by some random fluctuation, the tide changes. In western world, it took almost 300 years for democracy to be stabilized.
US also helped current regime when it first gained power.
It seems like the main thing Iran has done against the US is through proxies, which reflects modern US strategy.