Houthis choke the Bab al-Mandeb and the poor pay the ransom
By Josie Calloway · Reporting from Pittsburgh ·
When I was a charge nurse in the ER, we had a saying: the quietest patient is usually the sickest.
When I was a charge nurse in the ER, we had a saying: the quietest patient is usually the sickest. Right now, the world is staring at the loud noise—the drone strikes, the missile launches, the shouting matches between Tehran and Washington—while the real patient, the global working class, is quietly crashing.
As of this week, we are officially paying the ransom for a geopolitical game of chicken. According to ABC7 Los Angeles, U.S. diesel prices have averaged over $6 a gallon and crude oil has climbed above $100 a barrel. That isn't just a "market fluctuation." It is the direct result of the Houthis—the Iranian-backed militia—seizing the port of Mokha and Perim Island, effectively putting a leash on the Bab al-Mandeb strait. While Saudi Arabia claims the shutdown of its East-West oil pipeline was a "precautionary measure" following drone attacks launched from Iraq, let’s call it what it is: a systemic collapse. When the infrastructure that feeds the world’s energy supply can be toggled off by a few drones, the system isn't "precautionary"—it's broken.
A Playbook Written in the Eighties
This isn't a new crisis; it's a rerun. We are watching the precise mechanism of the Iran-Iraq War, specifically the 'Tanker War' phase. Back then, the strategy was simple: attack oil infrastructure and commercial shipping to exert maximum economic pressure on the adversary. The goal wasn't just to win a battle, but to make the cost of the war unbearable for the opponent's economy.
The Houthis and Iran are running that same script today. By securing the Red Sea coastline and the Bab al-Mandeb strait, they aren't just fighting a local war; they are weaponizing a choke point. We saw the dress rehearsal during the Abqaiq-Khurais attack in 2019, when drones crippled Saudi Aramco facilities. We saw the slow build during the Yemeni Civil War (2015-2022) and the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea (2021-2024). Each time, the lesson was the same: the most efficient way to hurt a superpower or a regional giant is to choke the flow of oil. The shared mechanism is the hostage-taking of the global supply chain to force a political concession.
Precaution is a Luxury for the Powerful
The most capable advocates for the current U.S. and Saudi strategy will tell you that these moves—the pipeline shutdown, the U.S. Central Command redirecting 99 vessels to enforce a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz—are necessary for "stability" and "security." They argue that by limiting exposure and securing shipping lanes, they are preventing a total global meltdown.
That argument is a lie told by people who don't have to worry about the price of a gallon of milk. Stability for a Saudi minister is not stability for the 46,000 people who fled their homes in Yemen this past week. It isn't stability for the doctors at the General Hospital in Yemen, who, as Lou Cormack of Doctors Without Borders told ABC7, have had to scale back everything just to keep essential medical services running.
When the United States hits five Iranian tankers or launches missile strikes on the Iraq-Iran border, as Al Jazeera reports happened in July 2026, it doesn't "secure" the region. It just raises the stakes of the gamble. The "security" they are protecting is the profit margin of oil majors and the prestige of flags in the water, while the actual cost is shifted onto the people who can least afford it.
The Blockade is Already Here
The chart tells us exactly where this goes. The Houthis have already declared that maritime navigation is safe for everyone except Saudi vessels. With Perim Island in their pocket, they don't need to shut down the whole strait to win; they just need to surgically remove Saudi Arabia's ability to export via Yanbu.
As Saudi Arabia redirects more crude toward the Suez Canal—increasing transit times to South Korea from 24 to 54 days—the cost of shipping will skyrocket. Tanker charter prices are already over $100,000 a day. This is a textbook strangulation. Iran will likely use the upcoming meeting in Oman to pretend they are negotiating "safe routes" while their proxies continue to tighten the noose.
We are not witnessing a series of isolated attacks; we are witnessing the intentional dismantling of energy security to serve a proxy war. The U.S. will keep sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz, and Saudi Arabia will keep calling its failures "precautions," but the result is the same. The poor will pay for the fuel, the displaced will die in the crossfire, and the people in power will call it a strategic necessity. The 'Tanker War' is back, and once again, the people at the bottom are the ones being bled dry.