Do American conservatives prefer radical Islamic leaders?

Today I read an amusing analysis of the political turmoil in Iran. Written by George Friedman, a conservative political scientist. The piece disparages allegations of vote fraud, and all but announces that Ahmadinejad must have won the election, because fraud would have been to difficult to arrange. Written before the street protests that followed in the days after the vote, Friedman almost seemed eager to maintain the status quo in Iran. It's an interesting perspective. I wonder if the existence of such a radical leader in Iran is quite useful to certain conservatives. With his extreme statements about the Holocaust, for example, Ahmadinejad is a perfect example of the "crazy Islamic leader," against whom all sorts of force is justified. Dealing with a more moderate Muslim leader might actually be more difficult intellectually for some conservatives.