In the narrow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, where a third of the world's seaborne oil has long flowed as a kind of liquid covenant between nations, the United States and Iran have crossed from posturing into open military exchange. Washington destroyed five Iranian crude tankers in retaliation for ballistic missile strikes on a US Navy warship, and Tehran's Revolutionary Guard responded by targeting American vessels and commercial shipping alike, warning crews in Kuwait and Bahrain to evacuate. What unfolds now is not merely a bilateral confrontation but a stress test of the global order tha