“Remember the Maine” and “Remember Pearl Harbor” were battle cries over which the U.S. went to war.

The USS Maine blew up and sank on Feb. 15th, 1898 in Havana Harbor, Cuba. The Spanish were blamed and it helped ignite the Spanish-American War. Rather than sabotage, seven decades later, the cause of its sinking was determined to be an explosion in the coal bunkers. However, it made no difference. The Maine was remembered.

But will anyone remember the merchant ship Rubymar that sank last week in the Red Sea, a victim of a Houthi missile attack? Will this incident be a repeat of the absence of consequences in 1967, when Israel forces premeditatively and without cause attacked the USS Liberty in international waters off its coast, killing the commanding officer, or after North Korea hijacked the USS Pueblo, an unarmed electronics ship also in international waters, off North Korea’s coast?

This sinking and the ability of a third or fourth-world state to challenge and threaten the international order by closing off transit through the Red Sea raise grave consequences. The first is the damage done to trade when a substantial........

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