The latest regional security shocks have exposed a deeper reality. Hormuz is not simply an oil chokepoint; it is the foundation upon which the modern economies of the Gulf were built.
The real question is whether Israel can remain the kind of Israel that the world has known for the past half-century without American power standing behind it. On that question, the evidence points in only one direction.
The recent tremors should therefore be treated not as isolated events but as a message -- a reminder that nature occasionally sends before delivering its harshest blows.
Kim is no longer the supplicant figure of earlier years. He bargains now. He postures. He makes patrons come to him.
Sovereignty is not maintained by lines drawn on a map or by seats held at the United Nations. It is maintained by the absolute certainty that if you attack the forces of the state, the state will break you.
Whether this moment produces genuine Cuban freedom or merely a new form of managed dependency will depend entirely on whether Washington wants a democratic Cuba or simply a compliant one. Those are very different objectives. And so far, the evidence suggests Washington hasn't quite decided which it's actually after.
AI is moving faster than any of them. The question is not whether algorithms belong anywhere near the battlefield. The question is who decides where the line is -- and whether anyone is really drawing it at all.
A nation fighting for its survival generates a depth of will that a nation fighting for its credibility simply cannot match.