In the heat of the military campaign to dismantle the Ayatollah regime and uproot its proxies across Lebanon and the Middle East, it is easy to succumb to the reductive trope that 'all Shiites are extremists'.

To be sure, the region is home to millions of radicalized Shiites and 'Shiite suicide bombers.' Yet, we must not forget that millions of Sunni extremists have also emerged, producing 'Sunni suicide bombers' who—despite orchestrating atrocities as devastating as 9/11 and the barbaric reign of ISIS—never had a similar label pinned to their entire sect.

True political sobriety regarding the 'day after' requires us to acknowledge a fundamental reality: a future Iran will not emerge as a Jewish or Sunni power; it will remain inherently Shiite. The strategic challenge, therefore, is not the eradication of Shiism, but the cultivation of a moderate, pragmatic alternative. We must remember that under different leadership—as seen during the era of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi before the 1979 Islamic Revolution—Iran and its affiliates have the potential to shift from being engines of instability to becoming vital partners in a new regional order".

The Shiite schools of thought  

The "moderate" Shiite voice is not defined by a single border or capital, but…