According to the passage, some segments of Iranian society have ultimately become aware of the fact that ----.

During the latter part of 1980, Iraq invaded Iran and
hoped to seize its southern oil fields. Iran
counterattacked. The result was a murderous eightyear
conflict marked by the use of chemical weapons
and human waves of young Iranian radicals fighting
the Soviet-armed Iraqis. The war ended with Iran's
defeat, but not the collapse of its theocratic regime. In
the short term, their long defence of Iranian
nationalism left the mullahs more entrenched at
home, while abroad they used their oil revenues to
back grass-roots radicalism in Lebanon and militants
elsewhere who engaged in anti-Western terrorism.
Over the years, the strongest threats to the Iranian
regime ultimately have come from within, from a new
generation of young students and workers who have
discovered that their prospects for prosperity and
democratic rights have not changed much since the
days of the shah.