U.S. Airstrikes Sink Iranian Mine-Laying Fleet in Strait of Hormuz

Flashpoints in the Strait of Hormuz echo 1988’s Operation Praying Mantis—when the U.S. Navy sank Iranian ships after the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine—and the 1984-88 ‘Tanker War,’ both of which briefly spiked oil prices yet failed to break long-run energy dependence on the Gulf. Today’s strikes fit a longer trend: hard-power shows to keep sea lanes open while technology shrinks the cost of asymmetric disruption (cheap mines, drones, cyber). Unlike Cold-War episodes, however, global crude demand is projected to peak within two decades; a mi-21st-century Hormuz blockade could therefore mark one of the last times fossil-fuel chokepoints hold the world economy hostage. Whether this moment becomes another short-lived flare-up or the catalyst for accelerating diversification away from oil will shape energy geopolitics for the rest of the century.