Gates: Strike On Iran Would Create Backlash

President Barack Obama (L) walks with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (R) from the Oval Office to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House February 27, 2009 in Washington, DC. President Obama is traveling to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to announce his plans for eventual removal of troops from Iraq. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

From The Navy Times:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that any sort of pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would create a disastrous backlash and that only tough economic sanctions will convince the country to abandon a nuclear weapons program, which it insists it is not pursuing but which administration officials say is well underway.

“The only way we can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is for the Iranians themselves to decide that it’s too costly,” Gates said during a Monday meeting with students at the Marine Corps University at Quantico, Va., where he went to discuss his controversial 2010 budget proposal. “And that it absolutely detracts from their security rather than enhances it.”

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My Comment: This is what I call stating the obvious.