Lessons of Suez: Fifty years ago, two western powers conspired to invade an Arab country

Boston Globe ^ | September 17, 2006 | Geoffrey Wheatcroft

[billorites]

AN OLD SAW HOLDS that British elections aren't won or lost on foreign affairs, but prime ministerial careers have sometimes been ended by distant adventures. As his own prime ministership peters out lamentably, Tony Blair has quite enough worries. But he might still find time to reflect on the events of 50 years ago, when an attack on an Arab country-involving a conspiracy to misrepresent the real reasons-brought a dismal end to the career of Sir Anthony Eden.

In November 1956, British and French troops tried to regain control of the Suez Canal, which had been seized by the Egyptian leader, Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser. There are all too many painful similarities between the Suez operation and Iraq, although there is also one crucial difference: Far from leading the attack (or orchestrating the deception), the White House was enraged, with President Eisenhower asking Eden, ``Anthony, have you gone out of your mind?" But then those were the far-off days when even a conservative secretary of state could see his task as gaining ``the friendship and understanding of the newly independent countries who have escaped from colonialism."

Since then, there has been a startling role reversal. In 1956, not only did London and Paris act in secret collusion with Tel Aviv, the United States was almost hostile to Israel-and toward ill-considered Western adventures in the Middle East. Today, Blair might ponder whether he should have acted as President Bush's candid friend, in the way that Eisenhower did with Eden, counseling the president against a rash enterprise rather than grandiosely supporting him ``to the last."

Once the Suez Canal opened in 1869 (after it had been dug at the cost of at least 100,000 Egyptian lives), it became the lifeline of the British Empire. That was even before it acquired a...

[mewzilla]

Wheatcroft. Nuff said.

[BelegStrongbow]

So he finally cracked that world history text he was supposed to be reading as a junior in HS. Big deal. Of course, there are almost no other valid parallels between the two events but having them happen in the same general area of the world appears to synchronize his mental watch sufficiently. So off he goes. Will he salivate next?

[Nextrush]

I have done a series of posts and will continue to do so this fall regarding the events of 50 years ago at Suez and in Hungary.

First link is: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1658589/posts

All posts are under keyword: 1956

[sgtbono2002]

Bosto Globe slips it to Blair.