Screw Republican Revisionist History about the Falklands

[TheBigotBasher]

Hillary Clinton has suggested Britain should talk to Argentina about the Falklands and that America could act as an independent negotiator. As far as Britain is concerned, there is no dispute. So there is no need to talk. Gordon Brown could discuss the weather, or something I guess.

Regardless of what many people in Britain are seeing as a Clinton gaffe, the right claiming Reagan helped the British with the Falklands War and this is a complete and utter lie.

Ronald Reagan was no help to Britain over the Falklands. The semi animated corpse who acted as President didn't even have a united Cabinet on the issue. Most of his Cabinet backed the Fascist Argentinian junta as a bloc against "Communism". There were two groups within his Cabinet, the ‘Latinistas’ and the ‘Atlanticists’.

The ‘Latinistas’ opposed giving Britain any support during the conflict. They claimed that the rise of Communism was such a great threat in Latin America that failure on the part of the US to support the Argentineans would destroy Argentina and turn it and the rest of Latin America further towards Communism.

The fact that opponents of the Argentinian Government were "disappearing" counted very little to the senile idiot or his Government. The fact that the people in the Falkland Islands were British and did not want to be part of a Fascist Government was of no relevance.

The Ambassador to the United Nations for the walking corpse that was Reagan was Jeanne Kirkpatrick. She attended a dinner at the Argentinean embassy in the US shortly after she heard of their invasion of the Falklands. Her support for Argentina so offended the British Ambassador, Nicholas Henderson that he asked her if the Americans would be happy if he attended dinner at the Iranian embassy, shortly after Iran had taken 52 Americans hostage.

The Secretary of State to the Second most idiotic President ever, (how Reagan must have loved W), was Alexander Haig. Reagan gave him the role of seeking a peaceful settlement of the dispute. Thatcher told him that she would not negotiate until the Argentineans withdrew from the Falklands. To do otherwise would be defeat.

He reported this back to General Galteiri who did not believe that the British would fight and that if they did the Argentinians would win.

Caspar Weinberger was the ‘Atlanticist’, he acted effectively as a mole in the American administration. He used the divisions, distrust and lack of structure in the Reagan administration to provide unofficial support to Britain. For that support he was given a Knighthood.

He arranged for equipment to be provided for Britain to use during the War. Weinberger claimed that he has received authorisation from Ronald Reagan to provide covert support to the UK. Admiral Dennis Blair and Haig both refuted that. They were also acting under different orders.

Alexander Haig years later told the BBC that that the divisions were due to Reagan’s administration being a ‘loose ship’ with a ‘flawed system’ of conducting policy. For this he blamed the staff working for Reagan.

The US refused to provide any base for the UK to use. The Latinistas won that battle. So Britain sought help from Pinochet to provide a base.

The British sought AIM-9M's from the US and they were turned down. The US had provided Argentina with boots and kit. They had also trained the Argentinian Army. France, although they had sold Argentina exocet missiles, agreed to a ban on further sales and provided the codes to disarm the missiles should the British get near them.

Overall, there was a drying up of military equipment in the battle. This proved to be advantageous to the British, who were used to heavily rationed kit. The American trained Argentinians had assumed a continual supply of heavy equipment, which was not forthcoming.

Britain won the war, with only tacit at best support from the US.

So Reagan fans and Republican Clinton bashers can go kiss big fat British arse.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Al Haig and Weinberger supported Britain and Kirkpatrick the Argies. The US military helped Britain

with intelligence.

The US was also prepared to give helicopter carrier GUADACANAL to to Britain in the event one of their carriers were damaged.

Falklanders chose to be British, so they are British. 'Nuff said.

[Romulox]

2. LOL at the last little shread of the British empire. I look forward to OUR day of reckoning. nt

[TheBigotBasher]

3. Actually they are a British protectorate

and not part of "colonial rule".

[Romulox]

4. (snort). nt

[PatGund]

5. Here's some facts:

The Falklands are a British Overseas Territory. And here's a historical fun fact - the UK claim on the Falklands dates back to January 1765, before Argentina even existed. There was no people living there at the time of discovery either, so none of this "stealing land from the native peoples" bit to worry about.

The UK has been in control of those islands from:

January 1765 – July 1770 (5.5 years)
September 1771 – May 1776 (4.5 years)
January 1833 – August 1833 (8 months
January 1834 – April 1982 (148 years, 4 months)
June 1982 – present (27.5 years)

That's a total of 186.5 years of British control.

And Argentina ?

August 1829 – December 1831 (United Provinces of South America) (2.3 years)
December 1832 – January 1833 (1 year)
April 1982 – June 1982 (3 months)

So a total of 3.55 years, which is about as long as France was in control of the Islands.

Spain was in control for 44 years, and the United States for 1 year.

Furthermore, the UK has had people resident there since 1833, (a previous English colony had been there from 1766 to 1776 , and a Spanish colony from 1767 to 1811)

United Provinces of South America only had residents there from 1823 to 1833, 10 years total.

Bottom line, the UK has a more established and longer-documented claim on the Falkland Islands than does Argentina.

And that's not counting the residents making it clear they are part of the UK and wish to remain such.

[vadawg]

6. yup its as much a part of the UK as the Isle of Wight, and if the argies try to take it again

then the UK should go to war as if it was any part of the UK that was invaded..

[Beacool]

8. Not much left of the once mighty British Empire.

Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen..........

:D

[PatGund]

20. Yeah, it's kinda funny.....

How the "Empire" took those former colonies and turned them into functioning members of the international community.

Or didn't you know that HRM Elizabeth II is also the ceremonial head of the Commonwealth of Nations, not to mention still the head of state for sixteen Commonwealth countries??

Sounds less like the "mighty have fallen" and more that they grew up.

[TheBigotBasher]

23. Thank you

The usual suspect appears to have run away.

[PatGund]

24. Not a problem

My daughter is a US/UK dual citizen. I see no reason not to stick up for both of her countries. :-)

[Beacool]

7. The British and the right wingers are having a cow over this.

Hillary is the US SOS visiting Buenos Aires and having a press conference with the president of Argentina. What the hell was she supposed to say? Oh no, don't sit down and negotiate, just go ahead and start another war.

Geez......

Besides, the only reason the British give two figs about those islands is due to the natural resources that can be plucked from ocean waters that are a few hundred miles from continental Argentina. Maybe the Argentines should place an rig off the coast of Britain and see how they like it.

;(

[vadawg]

9. jeez ill say it again the islands are british, the people who live there are british

the marines, guards and para who died there died on home soil, so what if its thousands of miles from the mainland UK, is hawaii any less part of the US due to its distance from washington DC. If the argies are dumb enough to invade again then they will have to be removed by force again as no nation can sit by as part of their territory is invaded...

[Beacool]

10. The Argentine, not the derogatory "Argies", are not planning to invade the islands.

They are rightfully indignant that Britain plans to drill for oil right off their coast.

Then again, the British have always taken whatever they wanted from others. That's how they became the "British Empire", isn't it? Lovely how they treated the Irish (more like genocide) and the Indians, among others.

:eyes:

[vadawg]

11. yeah and yet you would be quite happy for the argies to run over the brits who live inthe falklands

i guess its ok for the argies to take whatever they want...

[TheBigotBasher]

12. A few hundred miles is a very large distance.

The population of the Falklands consider themselves British. They have a right to self determination.

Hillary could have and should have said the Islands are not up for discussion.

See simple.

The British went to War for the Falklands in 1982, before any consideration of oil. Their natural resources were sheep.

As for your anti British mentality, the British are fighting alongside the Americans don't you know? They are supposed to be the closest ally of the United States.

[vadawg]

13. i think that would go out of the window for a lot of duers if the argies did invade

the falklands, i dont think they would want the US to support the Brits even if they are meant to be the closest ally of the US, and your right the UK went to war when it was just british subjects and sheep so there being oil isnt going to make any difference..

[Beacool]

14. And the Argentine have a right to protest when some foreign nation drills for oil off their coast.

If the British want to leave Afghanistan over this, so be it. I'm anti British when it comes to their imperialism. I'm not against the British people or their lovely nation. But I'm half Irish and went to boarding school in Buenos Aires. No love lost for the British by either nation and for very good reasons. Everybody knows about Ireland, but Britain tried to also invade Argentina when it was still under Spanish rule. In 1808 and 1809 the British invaded and were repelled by the populace of Buenos Aires. The Spaniards handled the invasion so poorly that it caused a revolt and cries for independence. The "criollos" (the children of Spaniards) fought against Spain and it lead to the revolt of the 25th of May 1810 and eventual independence from Spain in 1816.

[TheBigotBasher]

18. Hundreds of miles away is not just off the Coast.

There is not going to be another Falklands War. It is electoral hi-jinks by the current Argentinian Government. Hillary made a gaffe.

As an O'Sullivan with family in Ireland, i feel no animosity towards the British. Iy is sad that you feel animosity about something that happened over 200 years ago.

[PatGund]

21. You mean.....

Natural resources like the sheep that was the major resource of the Falklands the LAST time Argentina tried anything??

Or that the only reason why Argentina is complaining now is that they want those "natural resources that can be plucked from ocean waters" for themselves??

Sorry, history argues against you in this.

[davidpdx]

15. Casper Whinebooger?

Yeah, that's all I have to say.

[davidpdx]

16. This has nothing to do with the post, but a little bit of humor

I think England owes us (WWI and WWII come to mind) and should "lend" us one of the small islands so we can ship all the Bush criminals down there and put fences on the island. Maybe we could feed them once a week and have tours. Let's see how they like not having access to lawyers.

[TheBigotBasher]

17. Accepted as a joke

although I should remind you Britain paid the US for its involvement in WW2 and only recently paid the last bit of debt back.

[davidpdx]

19. Didn't know that

I am reading No Ordinary Time by Doris Goodwin-Kerns right now and it talks about the land-lease deal Roosevelt made with Churchill to buy munitions, destroyers and such. I'm sure when I took American History back 20 years ago I read something about it, but had forgotten. Her book goes into much better details then I had ever known before though.

Maybe we could agree to put a couple of their "bad eggs" in their as well. We could sell pay per view rights.

[ieoeja]

22. Also, if anyone owes anyone, it is we who owe the Brits.

For quite awhile there, Britain stood alone against NAZI Germany. They died while we prepared.

[Stella_Artois]

25. Some suspect facts in this article

"The British sought AIM-9M's from the US and they were turned down"

The AIM9-M only entered production in 1982 and may just have not been available in May. We did request AIM9-L's and got them too. We previously had a much older version that was virtually useless.

[craigmatic]

26. What a stupid useless war that was. Here's a video about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0WQBrKQiAU

The Brits just wanted a small war they could win easily to boost Thatcher's poll numbers.