"Knowing what we know now".

"Knowing what we know now".  Is a stupid question.

To illustrate, let's ask a current candidate, "Knowing what we know now about the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Iranian regime, its nuclear weapon quest and its support for terrorism, would you have fought like heck to keep the Shah of Iran in power in 1979 instead of doing what Jimmy Carter did and hustling him off to the Bahamas?"

If the candidate said "no," would that mean he or she supports Iran's dictatorship? And a "yes" answer would not change the Iranian conundrum we confront in 2015.

My "what if" question connects to Iraq 2003 what-ifs. Saddam Hussein used the shah's fall as an opportunity to invade Iran and seize the oil province of Khuzistan. His 1980 invasion failed. The Iran-Iraq War's eight years of trench warfare bled both nations physically and economically. In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, to loot it, spike oil prices and perhaps topple the Saudis. Invading Kuwait brought him into direct conflict with the civilized world. Operation Desert Storm drove Saddam from Kuwait. "Mr. or Mrs. Candidate, knowing what we know now, should George H.W. Bush have toppled Saddam in 1991?"