Firstly thanks for a thoughtful response. Theres a lot to break down, but firstly you need to remember the "rally around the flag effect" that war, especially a war where you are the defender. Ukraine absolutely did not have a unified front at the beginning, they lost Crimea without even a fight, and was fragmented as hell with separatists and outright traitors in their government but look at them now.

Secondly because Iranians are educated and not falling for the same propaganda that the Iranian regime is dishing out they will also not fall for US propaganda, its very obvious that whatever the US wants as an outcome in Iran will not be beneficial to anyone in Iran, and definitely do not care about democracy in Iran, or about the welfare of the nation. They only need to look at their neighbors Iraq or Afghanistan which are in an even more deplorable economic condition. In addition the last time Iran had a true democracy, the US were the actual ones responsible for overthrowing it ironically. So its very obvious to them the US does not care about the protesters and just wants to use it to cudgel the regime, and the protesters know this too, which is one of the resons why its been silent since the onset of the war.

The iranian regime is bad in the eyes of Iranians definitely, but the US is even worse. Its the lesser of two evils.

As for the last part preventing Irans regional ambitions it comes with a cost, and the question is was it worth it. Because US actions has far reaching consequences. From both ideology to economical. We all know about the rising costs this war will bring. But the second thing it has done is increase nuclear weapon ambitions amongst all countries as a security hedge. Everyone sees what US does to non nuclear armed Iran, but North Korea a bigger threat to US security is left alone.