In 1988, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "drank the cup of poison" and agreed to a U.N.-mediated ceasefire with Saddam Hussein to end the devastating Iran-Iraq war.
For Iran's leader, whose country suffered nearly a million deaths at the hands of the enemy, with countless more wounded, the bitterness can only be imagined, but it must have seemed better than continuing to fight.
Now President Barack Obama and the United States may have to drink their own cup of poison, and decide whether to settle with Iran on the nuclear issue and sanctions because it is better than watching the Middle East continuing to descend into chaos. Put bluntly, the U.S. is battling on too many fronts and not winning on any of them at the moment.