Twenty five years ago today.
I remember hearing about it on the bus home from school. I was the only one on the bus who knew where it was.
I'll see if I can dig up my diary of the war and if so can relate the events as they happened day by day.
Mind you, this year Argentina is stepping up pressure on the Falklands. They apparently want sovereignty. My answer is one word, two letters, the first is N and the second is O.
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6 comments:
Benedict, IMHO its because of all the cuts in the armed forces budget, We haven't the men or the (right) equipment or the ships, If the Falklands or something similar happened today, There would be no campaign, we couldn't do it.
Maggie Thatcher Fan, I regret to say i think you may be right especially as our forces are spread so thin at the moment.
That said I think we do have enough men and equipment in theater to prevent an invasion.
Benedict, I'm not sure I entirely agree with you on this. My view is that the Falkland Islands should remain British for as long as the population wishes to remain subjects of the Crown.
We can't say "never" on this because we don't know what might happen in 50 years time.
The military action in 1982 was entirely justified because of the flagrant breach of international law by Buenos Aires which had to be resisted as did that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1990.
The real "winners" were the Argentinean people whose transition to democracy was more rapid and arguably less violent than might otherwise have been the case.
It is to be hoped that Argentina will one day irrevocably renounce their claim to the islands and truly leave the islanders to decide their own sovereignty.
loadofoldstodge, Okay, if I woke up one morning and hell had frozen over, and the people of the Falklands started to think about it, fine. I just don't think it is very likely.
To be honest, Benedict, attitudes like that don't help.
We don't garrison Jersey and Guernsey with soldiers, planes and ships because we know France won't invade.
We need to get to a similar position with Argentina. That will only come through the fostering of improved economic and cultural relations. Of course, what happened in 1982 has to be remembered but the world has moved on and we have to recognise that as well.
loadofoldstodge, Perhaps I am sounding more beligerant than I intended.
The reality is that the Falkland Islanders are very unlikely to want to swap sovereignty, so Argentina has to work with that. It appears that at the moment they would rather not and are becoming a pain.
You are right that we do need to build better relations but they will always be suceptable to a populist leader in part because of what is in their history books.
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