By Ron Unz
The Unz Review
March 3, 2026
Seventy years ago both Britain and France were still regarded as great military powers. Having emerged in the winner's circle of World War II, they had been given permanent seats and veto power on the Security Council of the fledgling United Nations, taking their places alongside America, the USSR, and China.
Just a decade earlier, their empires had encompassed most of the Middle East, and as a consequence they still regarded themselves as the natural overlords of that region.