Ladies and gentlemen, behold the much-discussed Strait of Hormuz. The white space above is water, the greenish space is land. To the left, the Persian Gulf -- to the right (east), the Gulf of Oman. To the north, Iran. To the south, Oman. At its tightest point, there are just 21 nautical miles between Oman and Iran. That is even smaller than the mileage between England and France at the narrowest part of the Channel. Within that span, only an even smaller portion is actually useful for large vessels such as oil tankers, about two lanes, each two miles wide, separated from each other by a 2 mile buffer zone. Until a few days ago, roughly 20% of the world's oil supply was passing with regularity through the Strait of Hormuz. The name of the strait comes from nearby Hormuz Island, and the name of that island may come from a corruption of the name Ahuramazda, the Supreme deity in Zoroastrian religion. The closure of that strait for any l...