That's a gross mischaracterization of the neocon thesis as it was laid out in the '90s. When you read the papers put out at that time, they warned about a demographic and economic crises in the Arab world, that coupled with dynastic despotic families would surely drag the world into a global conflict.
It's easy to criticize the events now that we know how they unfolded, but imagine a world with Bashar & the Mullahs sitting across Auday & Qusay playing with their toys. Kim Jong would have nothing on the destruction those two could unleash.
If you care to take an objective look at everything that transpired between 2007 & 2009, you'd see that the strategy was finally starting to pay off after a horrific start. Iraq was on its way to stability, Iran's despots were on the verge of toppling and a wave of reform was sweeping the region. The only thing that could go wrong was for America to elect the one man who stopped all of that cold, and put things in reverse.
Kind of like putting Rex Ryan in charge of a team on the verge of the playoffs.
(BTW, I'm not to big to admit that I was very wrong about the Rex hire, because after a while the evidence is too overwhelming to think that he was anything but an incompetent buffoon)