please forgive me if i go "too far" with this joke but this is how i see it:

Argentina: WTF? don't drill on my continental shelf!
Britain: It is MY continental shelf, those islands are mine!
Argentina: AT LEAST ASK FOR PERMISSION! you know we agreed to disagree on who owns those little rocks.
Britain: did... did you just yell at me?
Argentina: I'M ONLY ASKING YOU TO ASK ME BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT! *speaking softly while drinking mate, trying not to be heard* not that you actually should...
Britain: *drops monocle on his cup of tea* I BEG YOUR PARDON?! YOU ARE ASKING FOR WAR! you are deviously planning to invade once more! *presses "panic button" under the desk*

:har::har::har::har::har:

That's perfect, right down to the 'monocle in tea' moment :yeah:

America: What are you two doing while I'm not looking??

Argentina: Hey! Mind your own...!! Uh, hi.

Britain: Argentina, sshhh... he's.... just.. cranky today..:timeout:

Both: We're having a Tea Party! :roll:

America: That so, eh. :hmmm: Very well. If you will excuse me, there is meddling to attend to elsewhere. Later! :rock:


Author takes full responsibility for his own lack of knowledge outside Fortress America. :oops:

*Brits check their Storage for a bunch of retired Buccaneers and Tornadoes*

excepot for the loss of life, i would love to see 5000 more Brits on That Godforsaken island, a couple of frigates and a squadron of FighterBombers.

Allow me to differ because that would more than likely lead to further loss of life.

During the 74 days of the Falklands conflict approximately 907 people lost their lives (649 Argentinian, 255 British and 3 Civilians).

I hope any further conflict over the ownership of the islands is carried out across a diplomats table.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/roh.html#g

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/index.html

Yes, I would love to see that too.

okay so let me wish the British would send 250.000 troops, Tanks, Arty and 5 Squadrons of Fighterbombers of all sorts over there.
and a nuke-missile sub too.
(do they have nuke subs? do they have nukes at all?)

should minimize the loss of life to either zero (no argie ever gonne make a dumb move) or 100% losses for the agressor.

That better?

:woot:

It could possibly be the same as last time only this time the british know what the argies can do and with that in mind we now have more capible units in the fleet such as the type 23 and if they hurry up about it atleast one type 45 maybe, we have 3 carriers at our disposal unlike the falklands 1 where we had one and a half (half being invincible she limped into battle)

But the one thing we do have that the argies dont is nuclear submarines and this unit alone kept the entire argie navy in port for the entire war because they have nothing to combat a nuke sub.

More to the point the argentine navy is a handful of frigates and patrol craft now, the two type 42's are decomissioned and planning to be scrapped or sold, they do have some meko FFG's but these wouldnt be much of a match for a submarine or indeed one of our type 23 FFG's or 42 DDG's.

They themselvs do posses submarines but i dont think they would put them to much use.

The falklands is gaurded now by a force of 2 to 1 ie 2 soldiers to 1 civilian so theres a good size of armed troops artillery and also aircraft to keep the argys at bay untill we were able to send down reinforcements.

As proved in the last war you dont have to be fast to shoot down a fast plane harriers did well i do recall there were no losses for a harrier in air to air combat?

Whats more our navy is more equiped for large overseas amphib warfare last time we relied on the fearless and intrepid and a few RFA belvedere LPD's well today we have the 4 bay class LPD the ocean which can carry apaches and to a limited area harriers and also is amphib capable, we also have ocean and bulwark so thats 7 LPD's plus what we can take from the merchant marine service.

I think if the argies invade they wont win.

LOL its been quite a well since Britain had an entire army strength of 250,000.

Plenty/ample nuke subs and nukes though :DL

I'd say it would more likely reduce the chance of further loss of life. Had those 5k troops, AC and naval assets been there in '82 I doubt the Argentinians would have attacked at all.

Agreed but I doubt we had the capability even then for an area that was considered so low on the British armed forces list of priorities.

There is a common belief in the UK that the British government were aware of the possibility of an invasion a few months before it actually took place.

At that point in time Maggie Thatcher and her government found their popularity waining and an election not that far off (not certain but within 12 months IIRC).

Planning was well in preparation for a task force deployment but first the Argentinians had to make their move.

The minute that happened Maggie revitalised her popularity on the back of the British public outcry at the invasion and the strong sense of patriotism that pervaded as a consequence.....this was manner from heaven for her.

All the pre-planning was brought to the fore and in a matter of only a few weeks the task force set sail.

The outcome is already well documented but the greatest benefit was to come at the hastily held general election soon after where a previously mortally wounded and unpopular Tory government and its 'Iron Lady' leader were elected to a further five year term in office.

We all know (at least the Brits anyway) how the Tory backbenches soon got sick of her totalitarian behaviour towards her supporters and forced her resignation and public humiliation on the steps of Downing Street in front of the cameras of the worlds media.

She was the closest example to Churchill (and I mean that in no disrespectful context to him) I can recall...a strong leader in times of war but a poor one in peacetime.

The above I draw from my own memories but I'm confident there should be ample internet resources to confrm.

Unfortunatly i cant draw on the memories of 1982 it was 6 years before i was born i have a few friends much older than me who served in the falklands and back then they stated under thatcher it was rubbish the only thing she did get right was getting rid of BR and the falklands for these two things she improved the country, but the rest well down hill all the way in top gear with a following wind.

I can just about remember the last year or so of john majors rein as PM, if we were to go to war with argentina again then gordon brown i dont think is the one to lead us tony blair maybe but i dont think brown has a clue.

we had a more numerous navy back then, but even with the numbers we have of today 87 commissioned warships with 16 auxilaries and the ability to pull 600 merchant vessels will make us still one tough opponant.

Our systems back then and weapons were not as advanced as they are now we learnt not to rely on point defence missiles and hence why today we have phalanx and goal keeper, our units deminished and have been replaced with more capible ones we have only 3 classes of warship from that era the carriers type 42 and type 22 we learnt alot so this time round i dont think it will be so easy given the lessons learnt.

Plus i dont think the cash strapped argentine government would be so dumb to try again.

I don't think they could muster the forces to take, let alone keep the Falklands, but nations don't always look at the bank balence when they go to war

One area where the UK is majorly deficient is in the air department, especially now that the Sea Harrier is no longer deployed...maintaining a CAP until reinforcements arrived would be key to any successful defence.

I reckon creating an air bridge to bolster the fighter capability from the UK to Ascension then onward to the Falklands using mid air refueling tankers could take up to 48 hours and would be a mammoth task.

It would be vital the infantry could protect the airbase long enough until those additional fighters arrived.

I wouldn't be too concerned on naval reinforcements coming inbound from Argentina because our submarines would probably neutralise them.

Whoever commanded the air would have a huge advantage.

But as I said earlier....I sincerely hope it never comes to this, let the diplomats and politicians earn their wages for a change.

All the Brits need is one little island to suck out all the oil in the continental shelf. They will deplete all the oil from Argentinian areas that the Argentinians haven't gotten to yet.