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The empire that drowned in the Suez
Incredibly, 65 years after General Nasser showed Britain the door, there are MPs that seem to think we can one day have successful solo imperial adventures again. Nonsense, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
General Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in Egypt then successfully defended it against Britain, France and Israel, forcing them to retreat; without the US, Britain could not go it alone

IN 1956 General Nasser, the ruler of the newly independent Egypt, nationalised the Suez Canal. It runs through Egypt, was dug by forced Egyptian labour and legally belonged to the Egyptian state.

Britain, France and Israel responded by sending in gunboats, warplanes, paratroopers and marines to grab the canal back and try to overthrow Nasser. Egyptian troops fought back.

The US, Russia and the United Nations opposed the imperial adventure. Britain, France and Israel were forced into a humiliating retreat, with nothing to show for a couple of hundred deaths among the invaders and over a thousand Egyptian civilians and soldiers killed.

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