I heard his remarks as "I think you have to hit the Middle East with a hammer to break things up" but he was quite clear that the "Retreads" did not do the Leviathan thing correctly (not enough boots) and did not do the sysadmin at all.

That the neocons wanted to do the globalization thing (see the Harpers article) is clear. The neocons wanted the profits, but were Selfish Children: no hard lifting or sacrifice involved.