Through the narrow waters of the Strait of Hormuz — where a fifth of the world's oil has long flowed like a quiet pulse beneath geopolitics — military strikes between the United States and Iran have turned that pulse erratic. Brent crude climbed toward $97 a barrel in early September 2026, carrying with it the weight of tit-for-tat tanker strikes, a wounded Saudi refinery, and the anxieties of consumers from Ohio to Shanghai. The disruption reveals an old truth: that energy is never merely a commodity, but a mirror of power, preparation, and vulnerability.