The Middle East is a problem. Our enemies there are on the march, and our friends are nervous. We need to do something about our credibility. The government has just the plan to fix it: Let Israel deal a crushing blow to the most powerful enemy state so that our country can swoop in as the peacemaker. Then we can finally build the security alliance that we've been trying for. Peace through strength will win the day.
I am writing, of course, about British leaders' mentality in 1956. In late October and early November of that year, Britain carried out a plan with the help of France and Israel to deal with Egypt's rising nationalist government. And it failed miserably. That war, known as the Suez Crisis, is widely considered the beginning of the end of the British Empire. Egypt became the most powerful Arab country for the next 20 years as British troops packed their bags.
