They're spinning this as an "in the off chance sanctions don't work..." contingency plan, but it sounds like an administration succumbing to its own impotence:

The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and deter its leaders from using atomic weapons. U.S. officials insist they are not resigned to a nuclear Iran and are pressing negotiations to prevent it from joining the world's nuclear club. But at the same time, the administration has set in place the building blocks of policies to contend with an Iran armed with atomic weapons.

Those elements, former officials and analysts said, include the newly revised defense shield for Europe and deeper defense ties to Gulf states that feel threatened by Iran.

Iran will probably have the bomb before our 2012 election, which means Israel is on its own. What's concerning here is that the administration clearly doesn't understand the deeper strategic implications of Iran owning a nuke and having that launch-on-warning missile technology enjoyed by the US and Russia for decades. Deterrence isn't the point here. We deterred the Soviets from attacking us with nuclear weapons, but that didn't stop them from exporting communism by means of violent proxy wars (which we were often sucked into, costing us billions of dollars and thousands of American lives).

Imagine what happens to the balance of power in the Middle East if Iran, like Russia, could safely shield its terrorist proxies under the protective cover of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting our regional bases, Israel, Europe, and ultimately the continental United States. Allowing Iran access to nuclear weapons is a guaranteed formula for widespread Mid-East strife and a potential nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel. The Obama administration seems to be resigning itself to that avoidable fate.