The news that UK maritime forces are on standby as the UN evacuates sailors from the Strait of Hormuz following a US-Iran deal has a whiff of the terminal. Not the deal itself, which is the usual diplomatic sleight of hand, but the evacuation. When great powers begin evacuating their citizens from strategic chokepoints, it is a sign that they no longer trust their own ability to command the seas.
Rome did the same when it pulled its legions from Britannia. The Victorians would have sent a gunboat, not a memo. Today, we send a UN charter and a press release.
The Strait of Hormuz is the jugular of global energy. To abandon it, even symbolically, is to admit that the West no longer has the will or the means to patrol its own lifelines. The deal may be a tactical ceasefire, but the strategic retreat is unmistakable.
We are witnessing an intellectual decadence that mistakes negotiation for strength. History will not be kind.
