With its defiant strikes on ships, Iran is making a paradoxical and explosively high-risk calculation -- that it can boost its long-term deterrence through actions that invite new US attacks.

Iranian officials insist that Tehran will not give up control over the waterway as US attacks threaten fragile truce.

With its defiant strikes on ships, Iran is making a paradoxical and explosively high-risk calculation -- that it can boost its long-term deterrence through actions that invite new…