Will America make the same mistakes as Britain in the Middle East?

David Rothkopf : U.S. leaders in the Middle East are trying to fix a credibility problem.

He says a plan to deal with Egypt 's rising nationalist government failed miserably in 1956 .

Israel , France , Israel and Israel played a game of political charades to get Egypt to take over the Suez Canal , he says.

The Suez Crisis is a cautionary tale for America , he writes, and the parties now seem to think proxy warfare is the solution.

Frida Ghitis: Eisenhower likely gave Britain a face-saving way out of an unwinnable situation.

She says the deck was stacked against British power and trying to fight a long-term occupation of Egypt while facing an economic meltdown probably would not have turned out well.

Ghitis says military power is useless if it ends up destroying the things it is designed to save.

The declining British Empire had America 's tough love to save Britain from itself.