Pakistan today and Iran in the 70s are very different places in many respects but there are nevertheless some alarming parallels beyond the obvious one of Islamic mlitancy.
We have an idealistic and inexperienced administration in Washington, and a certain misplaced confidence in the strength and staying power of the other country’s westernized elite. A constant factor, of course, is the media meme of insurgent forces (Khomeini then, the Taliban now) as the James Dean characters in a global melodrama.
I would not be surprised to see the Pakistani government collapse and the Taliban roll into Islamabad in a matter of weeks.