Every country with a stake in the Iran war, on one page.

President Trump spent much of his primetime address Thursday night relitigating old elections. But the most consequential news of the moment is that the United States is now six days into a renewed bombing campaign against Iran. The previously signed U.S.-Iran agreement to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed.

For months, this conflict has been mostly reported as one between the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran on the other, with several Gulf countries suffering collateral damage.

But zoom out, and you can see clearly that this conflict is much broader.

Look at history, and it isn’t hard to see how this could get much bigger.

That’s why everyone – no matter their party – should be invested in, and rooting for, this conflict to resolve in favor of the United States, and ultimately, the world.

In the summer of 1914, it took 37 days for one assassination in Sarajevo to become a war involving more than 30 nations because of a complex network of alliances and treaties between the powers of Europe. Austria-Hungary moved against Serbia, Russia mobilized to defend Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia and then France, and Britain came in when German troops crossed into Belgium. Each government believed it had no choice because a piece of paper said it did not, and by 1918, somewhere between 16 and 20 million people had died.

There is, thankfully, no indication that the conflict with Iran will similarly spread, yet many countries have a stake in its outcome and could be drawn further in.

Here is what this table shows. The inner ring is already at war: the United States, Israel, and Iran, plus what remains of Iran’s proxy network. The next ring is taking fire without having chosen a war: Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq, all countries that host American bases and have spent July intercepting Iranian missiles and drones. The third ring is bound by treaty: Turkey, a NATO member whose airspace Iranian missiles have crossed, plus Britain and France, which have flown defensive intercepts from Cyprus and the Gulf. The outer ring holds the economic stakes: China buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s exported crude, and roughly one-fifth of the oil the world consumes every day passes through the Strait of Hormuz, within range of the fighting.

Now the part that matters most. The reason this war has not become another 1914 is that the treaties of 1914 do not exist here. Russia’s 2025 partnership agreement with Iran contains no mutual defense clause. Neither does China’s 2021 pact. NATO has declined to treat missiles crossing Turkish airspace as an attack on the alliance under Article 5 of the NATO charter. Meanwhile, Iran’s proxy network is weaker than at any point in a decade. Nobody is automatically obligated to join this war. Every escalation so far has been a choice, and so has every act of restraint.

Four things could change the status quo: a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz rather than the current intermittent strikes, a mass casualty strike on a NATO installation such as Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, Russian or Chinese weapons or ships entering the fight, or a coordinated offensive by Iran’s proxies rather than sporadic attacks.

In the months ahead, almost every development in America will be filtered through its possible impact on the 2026 midterms. But some moments are bigger than an election and demand something better than what often passes for leadership in Washington.

This is one of those moments.