the rix mix

USHUAIA, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez marked the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war on Monday with sharp criticism of Britain for maintaining "colonial enclaves" and a renewed call for sovereignty talks.

First of all, the British, Spanish & French all laid claim to the uninhabited islands now known as The Falklands. Had the Spanish claim stood, Argentina could have inherited it. But neither the British nor Argentinians have natural sovereignty over the islands. They're 290 miles from South America.

Second, The Falklands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, & the inhabitantS are & consider themselves British citizens, not a colonized,  oppressed indigenous people, since The Falklands had no indigenous people to conquer.

 When the Argentinian military attacked & occupied the Falklands on April 2, 1982, I was working at Upsala College Bookstore.  After the Brits decided to retake the Islands (What else would one expect them to do?) & dispatched a naval task force, we taped a map of the North & South Atlantic Oceans to a wall & followed the progress of the fleet. We were rooting for the Brits all the way.  Not because we cared so much about The Falklands, but because Argentina was ruled by a despotic military junta that was torturing & "disappearing" thousands of Argentinians. Their invasion had to be a desperate effort to prop up a tottering government, & the inevitable  British victory would likely knock it over altogether. It was a terrible miscalculation by the Argentina military, especially the navy, which may have thought Britain's cost-saving decision to withdraw an ice patrol vessel from the South Atlantic , its only ship  on regular duty there,  indicated an unwillingness to defend The Falklands. Britain had no contingency military plans for an Argentinian invasion. 

The British keep a first rate navy & very tough Royal Marines for just this sort  of problem. They were not going to allow free British citizens  with British rights to fall under the rule of the Argentinian junta, period. So it was, in my opinion, a war of liberation. Plus there was the matter of potential oil & mineral discoveries Great Britain was no way surrendering. 

There was never a doubt in my mind or the minds of my coworkers that the Brits would win this one. Might be tougher than they expected, & was, but win they would. The United States Navy thought it was impossible

Labels: in the news, war more war