As President Trump takes center stage with his two-week ultimatum to Iran, the debate over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is once again thrust into the limelight. Trump finds himself at odds with some previous assessments, especially those of Tulsi Gabbard, who’s stuck to her guns that Iran wasn’t making nuclear weapons. Now that’s quite a claim, but Trump seems to be waving a finger, ready to take action if necessary.

It’s all a bit dramatic, isn’t it? Two weeks is what the president has thrown down as the maximum time before deciding on a course of action. Surely, writing this screenplay didn’t involve flipping an hourglass! But sarcasm aside, the situation involves some serious stakes. Dan Hoffman, a Fox News contributor, made quite the point about the intelligence assessments being aligned on conclusions about Iran’s uranium enrichment. While they agree on the facts, they are at loggerheads over the best policy.

There’s a bit of an eyebrow-raising notion when looking at where everyone stands. Iran seems to be playing a high-stakes poker game, with enriched uranium up to 60% purity. Ninety percent is the golden (or rather, the nuclear) ticket. Despite all this, some insist none of this translates into Iran actively seeking nuclear weapons. Call it semantics or just a fancy game of dodgeball, but the clarity on Iran’s intentions continues to be debated fiercely.

Then, there’s the whole espionage side show. Imagine Mission Impossible, without Tom Cruise, but instead having a hawk-eyed intelligence community both in the US and Israel. Israeli intelligence reportedly has a near-Hollywood level of infiltration skill. Yes, their prowess seems to make everyone else’s intelligence gathering look like a high school science project. Apparently, they’re probably good enough to know not just the blueprints of Iran’s facilities, but maybe even the paint colors on the walls!

All in all, here stands President Trump, surrounded by top-tier intelligence and facing imperfect information. That’s the reality of international politics—operating in shades of gray with the best minds in the world trying to provide a crystal-clear perspective. In the meantime, ordinary folks can continue to hope this reality doesn’t turn into a blockbuster action movie finale with dire consequences. For now, we wait, and two weeks have never seemed longer.