Day-104 Surge: U.S. Tomahawk Barrage Triggers Iran’s Strait-of-Hormuz Shutdown

Chokepoint warfare over Gulf oil recalls the 1984-88 “Tanker War,” when Iran and Iraq attacked shipping and U.S. naval escorts culminated in Operation Praying Mantis (18 Apr 1988). Then, as now, energy routes became bargaining chips in stalled negotiations. The current exchange also echoes 1973’s Arab oil embargo—markets again learn how a single strait can rattle global prices. Structurally, this flare-up spotlights a century-long trend: great powers using precision strikes and economic leverage to coerce mid-level states, while those states exploit asymmetric tools (missiles, drones, chokepoint closure) to offset conventional weakness. Whether the strait stays shut for weeks or hours, the precedent of openly threatening world energy arteries may normalize escalatory brinkmanship, inviting future replication from other regional actors over the next hundred years.