Get Obama to Focus on Iran? Good Luck

It should be remembered that President Obama squandered most of his first term in office on a foolish attempt to engage with Iran and on efforts to create an international coalition to support watered-down sanctions on the regime. He has begun his second term determined to repeat this pattern by reviving the P5+1 talks that failed as they did every previous time. They have capped this dilatory record by now seizing on the election of Hassan Rowhani, a supposed moderate, as president of Iran, as yet another chance to pry open a mythical window of diplomatic opportunity even as they publicly acknowledge that the ayatollahs have been manufacturing and exploiting these initiatives for years to enable them to run out the clock on their nuclear timetable.