The Iran question is forcing Barack Obama to face the intricacies of foreign affairs. That’s got to be a tough shift for him. It’s one thing to talk tough on the campaign trail, something completely different to actually make a tough decision.

Eliot Cohen, a former member of the State Department, paints a dire portrait of the current situation in this Wall Street Journal column.

To Cohen, there are only two options left after Iran’s latest missile tests ? “an American or an Israeli strike, which would probably cause a substantial war, or living in a world with Iranian nuclear weapons, which may also result in war, perhaps nuclear, over a longer period of time.”

The immediate future, as far as Iran is concerned, could make the Bush escapade in Iraq look like a walk in the park.