Iran’s decision to answer the killing of a senior security official with suspected cluster-armed salvos marks a dangerous threshold, not only for Israel but for the entire region. These weapons do not distinguish between soldier and child, runway and rooftop. Every intercepted projectile is a narrow escape; every one that slips through tests the limits of both defenses and restraint. As U.S. facilities and partners come under fire, Washington is dragged deeper into a confrontation it once hoped to contain from afar. Tankers, pipelines, and global markets now move under a cloud of risk priced in fear, not just in dollars. In crowded cities from Tel Aviv to Tehran, families weigh shelter locations as carefully as politicians weigh their next move. Without a deliberate step back from the brink, this is no longer a series of strikes. It is the slow ignition of a wider, uncontrollable storm.