If I were Iran I wouldn't strike at the US populace at all.

Stephen Kinzer made the point that popular hatred of America by Iranians takes a lot of effort to sustain - Tehran had a street named after an American missionary until recently and Iran were big boosters of America up until Mossadegh. It was the ties between Pahlavi and the CIA that created the whole "Great Satan" trope and if you look at Iranian actions in the Middle East they're largely against the military and intelligence.

Iran got their vengeance for SAVAK through the Marine bombings and capturing and killing William Francis Buckley, CIA station chief for South Asia. The IRGC was maybe? involved in the USS Cole? But the Cole was such an operational clusterfuck that the best way to look at it is the Iranians threw some money at a bunch of Yemeni freelancers who if the Iranians had so much as given them a "blowing things up for Dummies" book would have had a lot more success.

You probably know that as America's founding general fearlessly leading his noble troops to victory against an overwhelming and oppressive foreign invader. In the context of the time, though, that's a traitorous rebel terrorist striking a peacekeeping garrison WELL outside the bounds of conventional warfare. Who the fuck fights on Christmas? WINNERS as it turns out.

The Iranians aren't unprincipled. They're fighting asymmetrical, unconventional warfare on terms the US does not officially fight but from an Iranian perspective, they're fighting a war, not slaughtering civilians.

"Civilians" as defined by the Iranians, that is. I'll bet Jared Kushner has been told he's not leaving the continental US any time soon and I'll bet Mar El Lago is tight as a fucking drum right now.