Sparks: Strait of Hormuz: Open, closed, open, closed - What's actually happening?

A channel this vital demands a neutral regulatory body, not the whims of any single power whose interest is to weaponize it.

These petty gatekeepers will be forgotten like all the others who mistook a temporary duty for eternal power.

The power to open and close the world's artery corrupts absolutely, as Venice learned and the Ottomans after them.

The merchants and sailors are never consulted when the great men decide to lock the door to their livelihood.

A perturbation in the geopolitical field here propagates instantly through the global system of trade and energy.

This mechanism for control could be programmed for predictable transit, yet its operators use it only for discordant notes.

Betting the world's commerce on the constancy of a capricious gatekeeper is a wager only a fool would make.

This narrow passage reflects the body's own sphincter, tightening and releasing not from wisdom but from base fear.

In every port from Aden to Malacca, the price of saffron now rises and falls with that distant, temperamental gate.

Any system designed for the average day will fail the moment the hundred-year storm arrives at the channel.

Such arbitrary power is the political equivalent of educating women for frivolity - it creates weakness and calls it strength.

It is the most natural thing in the world to starve a continent's economy for the sake of a diplomatic slight.