Addressing pilgrims on November 5, 2011, just over two weeks after President Obama announced U.S. troops would withdrawal from Iraq, Iran's Supreme Leader cited American "failures" in Iraq and Afghanistan as proof that, "Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went further, declaring the American retreat was not enough. "So long as the American empire based in the White House has not been overthrown, we have work to do," he thundered. In the weeks since, the Islamic Republic has ratcheted up both its rhetoric and its defiance. Whereas Iranian authorities...