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In the early hours of April 8 local time, the around 20,000 seafarers stuck in the Persian Gulf received the news that they’d been hoping for: The 3,000 or so ships waiting behind the Strait of Hormuz would be able to leave. More than a month of fear, confinement, and the prospect of worse was over. The ships and their crews thought they were free, even if they still had to perform the extraordinary complex choreography of transiting the Strait of Hormuz in a neat procession.

Now, this optimism appears premature. Within less than 24 hours, the cease-fire was in doubt. By  April 9, the Strait of Hormuz was nearly empty, the ships still waiting inside the Persian Gulf. Once again, the shipping community is picking up the pieces from U.S. President Donald Trump’s ill-thought-through war against Iran.

In the early hours of April 8 local time, the around 20,000 seafarers stuck in the Persian Gulf received the news that they’d been hoping for: The 3,000 or so ships waiting behind the Strait of Hormuz would be able to leave. More than a month of fear, confinement, and the prospect of worse was over. The ships and their crews thought they were free, even if they still had to perform the extraordinary complex choreography of transiting the Strait of Hormuz in a neat procession.

Now, this optimism appears premature. Within less than 24 hours, the cease-fire was in doubt. By  April 9, the Strait of Hormuz was nearly empty, the ships still waiting inside the Persian Gulf. Once again, the shipping community is picking up the pieces from U.S. President Donald Trump’s ill-thought-through war against Iran.

Before 8 p.m. EDT on April 7, Iran and the United States agreed on a cease-fire. The erasure of civilization threatened by Trump earlier in the day was off. In exchange, Tehran agreed to let ships transit the Strait of Hormuz unimpeded.

As a reminder, before the war began on Feb. 28, the strait was completely open. In fact, traffic in the........

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