India, Sept. 2 -- A disturbing sense of deja vu has blanketed West Asia. American warplanes have, again, struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions across southern Iran - Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, Jask - after a brief lull in a war that has simmered since the assassination of Iran's supreme leader back in February. Iran has retaliated by attacking US bases in the region.

It is tragicomic that after a negotiated detente, the two countries have stumbled into a second round of a war that has already gutted global stock markets, disturbed supply chains, set oil prices on fire, and disrupted almost every facet of the global economy. What is happening in West Asia is a troubling portent of conflicts in the new global order ...