Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greeted the day before the beginning of the high profile P5+1 talks with Iran is Istanbul the way US officials so often have, by threatening yet more sanctions that will likely undermine what little good will remains.
Officially everyone (except the US) seems to be going into the talks filled with optimism, and with pledges that the serious deals which have eluded all the previous discussions will suddenly crop up this time.
Privately though, it doesn’t seem that anyone really believes the talks will accomplish much of anything, beyond giving each participant a chance to blame someone else for the inevitable failure.
The Obama Administration is going into the talks with even more onerous demands than the ones which were rejected previously, and Iranian officials still aren’t considering the abandonment of their civilian program. Those two positions leave no serious room for negotiation between them, and it is expected that the talks will fairly quickly break down, as they did in Geneva.
Of course the talks are going to break down.
One side, the US, does not want an agreement. One side, the US, is going into the talks in bad faith. One side, the US, wants to give the appearance of wanting to negotiate, when in reality they have no such desire.
For the US to make impossible demands on Iran just prior to the talks, is extremely immature and demonstrates a lack of sincerity. No matter what Iran says, the US will oppose it.
There ya go! When in doubt, threaten, threaten, threaten. That's always worked well for the US. If that were to fail, however, there are other options like: bomb, bomb, bomb.
Why does the Pentagon aim to achieve a disarming first strike capability ? See Robert C. Aldridge: Nuclear Empire (ch. 9 on anti-submarine warfare). Only for Blackmail ? Or is there a darker motive ? At any rate it´s suicidal as Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-realized and resigned. Of course, the Russians will go for Launch On Warning, maybe even Automatic Launch On Warning by 2014/15. Because of the bloody fools in the Pentagon.
What a good way to start negotiations!