Follow this link to the New York Times article published April 17, 2010.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.

Has warned some months ago, I might add, just in case you thought this was a recent story.

In other words, in a carefully leaked story, the administration let Iran know that it was fully prepared to take military action.

In an interview on Friday, General Jones declined to speak about the memorandum. But he said: “On Iran, we are doing what we said we were going to do. The fact that we don’t announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesn’t mean we don’t have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies — we do.”

We all know that this is the way strategy should be discussed.  You leave it vague enough that the enemy does not know what you are planning, but you make sure they know you are planning something.  At least this administration is a little more subtle about it.  It doesn’t challenge anybody to bring it on.