What US leaders have never understood about Iran

What US leaders have never understood about Iran | New York Post:
“American rulers have always dreamed of forcing us to change our behavior, and failed,” Iran’s “Supreme Guide,” Ali Khamenei, said Saturday.
“Five US administrations took that dream to their graves.
The present one shall have the same fate.”
Khamenei’s analysis is not far off the mark.
Successive American presidents have worked hard to persuade the Khomeinist regime in Tehran to modify aspects of its foreign policy, so far with no success.
The reason may be the inability or unwillingness of successive US presidents, and a good part of the American political and cultural elite, to properly understand the nature of the Khomeinist regime.
Jimmy Carter believed the Khomeinist seizure of power represented the return of religion to the center of public life.
His administration described Khomeini as “a holy man” and “the Gandhi of Islam.”
Carter wrote letters to Khomeini “as a man of faith to a man of faith.”
He even ordered the resumption of arms supplies to Tehran.
We all know what that did to Carter.
...To admire this regime because of Iranian culture is like admiring Hitler for Goethe and Beethoven and praising Stalin for Pushkin and Tchaikovsky.
This regime has executed tens of thousands of Iranians, driven almost 6 million into exile, and deprived the nation of its basic freedoms.
It has also killed more Americans, often through surrogates, than al Qaeda did on 9/11.
Not a single day has passed without this regime holding some American hostages.
Iran as a nation is a solid friend of America. 
Iran as a vehicle for the Khomeinist revolution is an eternal enemy of “The Great Satan.”
The only realistic strategy for the United States would be to help it stop being the Islamic Republic and become Iran again.
President Obama’s policy, however, points in the opposite direction. 
He has made it harder for the Iranian people to regain their human rights.