Seven months after the first strikes were exchanged, the United States and Iran remain suspended in a stalemate that neither side has found the wisdom or the will to end. A June memorandum of understanding — the closest the two nations came to an off-ramp — has expired without producing peace, leaving military pressure and economic blockade as the dominant instruments of a strategy whose ultimate objectives remain unclear. The Strait of Hormuz, one of civilization's most consequential waterways, stays disrupted, a reminder that when great powers miscalculate, the costs are rarely borne by thos