Robert Gates: War on Iran Would Be ‘Catastrophic,’ Make Tehran Nukes ‘Inevitable’
Former defense secretary Robert Gates said a US strike on Iran would ‘haunt us for generations’
A US or Israeli attack on Iran would “prove catastrophic” and “make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable,” former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in a speech Wednesday night.
Neither the United States nor Israel is capable of wiping out Iran’s nuclear capability, Gates said, and “such an attack would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable. They would just bury the program deeper and make it more covert.”
Not only would Iran be likely to reconstitute its defunct nuclear weapons program, but Tehran might also respond by disrupting world oil traffic in the Persian Gulf and launching a wave of terrorism across the region, Gates claimed.
“The results of an American or Israeli military strike on Iran could, in my view, prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations in that part of the world.”
Gates was reiterating what has become an emergent consensus within the military and intelligence community in the United States, that a war on Iran – which Israel and many hawks in Congress have been pushing for – would not only be entirely discretionary, but would have disastrous consequences for Iran, the region, and the United States.
A report released last month by former government officials, national security experts and retired military officers concluded also that an attack would motivate Iran to restart its weapons development, and that the ensuing war would end up being “more taxing than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.”
On the war strategists’ own terms, a war on Iran would backfire. But the human cost of such a war would also be immense. Even if a US or Israeli strike only targeted Iran’s nuclear sites and it didn’t result in larger land war, the toxic plumes released as a result of the strikes could kill or injure up to 70,000 civilians in nearby cities and towns.
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WarSclerotic 
October 4, 2012 at 7:53 PM
First off, Gates scares the hell out of me. Don’t trust him. Never will. To me, he was the first Secretary of Defense ever to make the U.S. military appear weak. Second. Let’s keep praying Romney continues to make Obama look bad in the debates. Actually, it’s Obama’s fault, but most folks think diferently. That’s fine. Go with the flow and keep praying.
October 4, 2012 at 8:54 PM
Robert Gates didnt like Netanyahu, to say the least.
October 5, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Please name 3 international politicians of any importance that like Mr. Netanyahu, trust him, or at least respect him.
October 4, 2012 at 8:27 PM
gates is deliberately misleading,iran has no offensive capability or defensive it is 70 years out of date,its proxies are living on a myth watch them crumble,why fear a myth iran Russia are all talk,gates is a coward he said the same thing before Iraq,time to distroy iran,look at all the brave talk about attacking syria,the filthy turks called there bluff today,look what happened syria and iran and russia begs them to stop,thats all because thats all they have are words,obama has a agenda dont listen to it he is a trator and will pay after his election defeat
October 5, 2012 at 9:35 AM
If attacking Iran were as easy as Operation Cast Lead, Israel would have done it already 3 times over in the past decade….
October 5, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Mr. Gates in just another voice in the ever expanding chorus of heavyweight politicians, military-, and intelligence personal that share my view that any attack on Iran will have enormous yet unpredictable consequences. However, I am still convinced that there won’t be any attack, as I have made clear on this forum for well over a year.