OPINION — In response to attacks by Israel and the United States, Iran has effectively closed the Hormuz Strait to shipping. The result of the Iran War has been a sharp increase in oil prices. With apologies to Yogi Berra, we have seen this scenario before, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956.
Great Britain responded to the nationalization of the Suez crisis by invading Egypt. Prime Minister Anthony Eden launched that invasion without the support of the U.S. and other allies. He was so obsessed with the removal of Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and regime change in Egypt that he was willing to risk an invasion that failed. Great Britain never quite recovered from that debacle; the Suez Crisis spelled the end of the British Empire.
The Suez Crisis was a debacle not only for Great Britain but for the U.S. In the chaos that followed the invasion of Egypt, the Soviet Union entered to fill the vacuum left in the Middle East.
