Originally Posted by Phil Hoskins
The US ignored it feeling that we had won in Iraq and could exert all our might against Iran at will.

This was simply neocon thinking at it's worst. Gerecht was one of the leading neocon writers whose ideas were used by those neocons employed in policy making positions in the administration. From Regime Change in Iran? written in Weekly Standard, July 29, 2002 but posted at PNAC site he said
Quote
The president just needs to keep talking about freedom being the birthright of Muslim peoples. If he does so, he will do vastly more for the Iranian people than Mohammad Khatami ever will. And if history repeats itself—as goes Iran, so will go the Muslim world.

And the Pres continues to listens to clowns like this.

ignorance is the enemy
without equality there is no liberty
America can survive bad policy, but not destruction of our Democratic institutions