Understanding The Neocons II

A reader writes:

You're calling it right on the bizarre pieces by Kagan, Wolfowitz, and Krauthammer but missing what I think is the deeper motivation. Since the Cold War, neocon aspirations have not been to change the world but to change the way America thinks and acts in the world. They would like us to be more belligerent and assertive -- not because the world needs it but because we need it to toughen our fiber. It's all about us. 

That's why it never occurs to them to ask the Iranian dissidents themselves if we should make public pronouncements.  Who cares?  And also why someone like Pipes is rooting for Ahmadi: America needs that kind of enemy if it is to become what it should be. That's what matters.

And Strauss would be smiling.