Spirit Airlines parked its fleet forever on Thursday morning, becoming the first major domestic casualty of the soaring energy costs triggered by the war on Iran. According to Wyoming Public Media, the budget carrier ceased all operations overnight as jet fuel prices reached a breaking point. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has turned the global aviation industry into a graveyard. In Europe, jet fuel prices surged from $80 per barrel in February to $180 by the end of April, per Dublin City University professor Marina Efthymiou. For an airline like Spirit, which operated on thin margins, the math of $180 fuel is a death sentence.

While the airlines collapse, the humans powering the global logistical network remain trapped in the crossfire. The U.S. Navy has launched Project Freedom to escort 20,000 seafarers who have been held hostage in the maritime corridor for weeks. These workers are the biological friction of imperial war. As the Pentagon prioritizes the transit of cargo and energy, the sailors on these vessels are treated as disposable liabilities. The U.S. warning to shipping firms regarding sanctions for paying Iranian tolls further tightens the noose.

This is the reality of Imperial Triage. The state is mobilizing its military to protect the flow of capital while the infrastructure that serves the working class, like budget air travel, is allowed to disintegrate. Spirit Airlines is gone because the administration has decided that fueling a proxy war in the Gulf is more important than the mobility of its own citizens. The empty departure boards at airports across the country are the physical receipts of a foreign policy that prioritizes maritime blockades over domestic stability. The workers at Spirit and the 20,000 sailors in the Gulf are the ones paying the bill for a war they did not vote for.