by contrast, the baath party in iraq was the consequence of arab socialism being perverted into stalinism, so the socialist forces were already in power, there. saddam hussein obviously wasn't much of a socialist, but his party was historically a socialist party. so, taking down the baath party opened up a space for the islamists.

and, for the ignorant or naive, i'll remind you that this is the nature of politics in the middle east and has been for years: it's socialists v islamists. that's the political spectrum. this shia v sunni thing is a conflict on the right, and was mostly created by the imperial occupation.

in iran, the islamists are in charge, so knocking them out should open up space for the socialists - and that's potentially a good thing.
 
http://socialistresistance.org/the-iranian-revolution-socialism-and-theocracy/3826