If only the Shah had held it together.
If he just didn't mess around with land reform he possibly could have done it.
But because he fucked that up and angered both the peasants and the nobles It allowed extremeists of a crazy religion to gain support of self interested nobles and ignorant peasants to there side.
I also blame the fair portion of the Western world and their treatment of Iran back then.
"But he was a bad man with his own police force!"
So the fuck what, he was basically a classical emperor, Empires require an iron hand, at least an Empire or a Rebublic is a functioning long term government unlike Democracies and Dictatorships that so many think tank know it all know nothings insist on.
And just look what kind of government took over in his place, Fucking totalitarian theocracy that is hostile to basically the entire world.
Also feel sorry for the average Joe there because after he was ousted their economy has slowly gone more and more downhill the past 40 years and are now borderline getting close to 3rd world status, if things kept going on the original path that he set they would have an economy that would rival Germany at this point.
Just such a big opportunity wasted and flushed down the drain.
They won't ever be the land of Mazda anymore but at least they would have been far better than what they are now.
Oh well that's history for you.