What if Iran gets the bomb?

In fact, even though the Obama administration isn’t ready to accept that Iran will become a nuclear power, it is already doing all those things — and laying a foundation for containment.

Riedel makes one more provocative point: He argues that President Obama should actually take the military option off the table and forswear any intention of attacking Iran — because, in his view, it gets in the way of an effective containment policy. “It makes it harder for a lot of other countries to come on board,” he said.

But Obama and his aides, after vowing repeatedly to keep the military option on the table, are unlikely to agree.

The most important thing is this: Obama shouldn’t allow himself to be boxed in by past formulas. If Gates is right that a military attack on Iran is a bad idea, the time to begin talking about alternatives is now.