Business: Double Jeopardy In Iran

Now the orders are drying up like the oil

From the start, Iran's turmoil has threatened real double-trouble for the U.S. and the world's other industrial nations. Until as recently as last December, the country was both a major source of oil—second in importance only to Saudi Arabia—and a businessman's bonanza, with a powerful appetite for arms, machinery, factories, cars, computers and countless other products from the West and Japan. Last week the extent of the double jeopardy became startlingly clear.

First came an announcement by the U.S. Defense Department that upwards of $7...