A failed state doesn’t just imply the fall of a government, it refers to a degradation of the conditions of a country such that effective governance by anyone is impossible for a period. Think like has happened in Somalia, or Haiti. I’m not going to claim that the Iranian government is a particularly admirable one, but that kind of condition would be even worse for the people living there, and the chances of that process resting in something significantly better when the country finally recovers again aren’t terribly high.
TBH I think even total anarchy, with roving bands of raiders, might be better than a country that wages war on every neighbor, starves its own people, and kills thousands of protestors in a short time period. The fact that they ally themselves with China is just more on the pile.
A failed state doesn’t just imply the fall of a government, it refers to a degradation of the conditions of a country such that effective governance by anyone is impossible for a period. Think like has happened in Somalia, or Haiti. I’m not going to claim that the Iranian government is a particularly admirable one, but that kind of condition would be even worse for the people living there, and the chances of that process resting in something significantly better when the country finally recovers again aren’t terribly high.
TBH I think even total anarchy, with roving bands of raiders, might be better than a country that wages war on every neighbor, starves its own people, and kills thousands of protestors in a short time period. The fact that they ally themselves with China is just more on the pile.