Falklands war your views
 

whats your views or thoughts on the falkands war ?


il post mine later when i wake up a bit :D

Falklands war your views
 

I have to sleep and see if I can dream a view up...

It was a fairly pointless war that taught military strategists a few things.

I mean, come on invading a territory of a nation that possesses Nuclear Weapons! :roll: I'm just glad more people didn't die on both sides. :down:

Kindof pointless spitt of rock in the middle of ******* nowhere!
Still, I guess there was a principal at stake... damn argies. Last time the iron lady got to stomp her jackbooted feet on somebody elses neck, other than the polltax rioters or the micks :lol:
Oh yer, and there were a few people who lived there who wanted to remain british subjects.
More of a demonstration of intent and resolve than a propper shootin' war... despite appearances to the contrary. Just as well it didn't last very long... good show by the harrier pilots, bad planning by the argentine airforce- if they had concentrated on shooting down the harriers instead of attacking the shipping, they might have had free reign in the sky to do as they pleased once the harriers were out of the way.
What do you remember most clearly from the falklands war? - that bloke with truely awful burns :down:

Hi,

It was not a pointless war - we the UK needed to defend the falkland islands from invasion, we require the falkland islands to be under the Union jack for 2 reasons:

1) It F*cks off the Argentineans

and more importantly

2) Strategic Sheep farming purposes!!!!
:rotfl:
Kaleun

I remember at the time, being a mere 20 years old, I was against the war. It seemed to be a complete waste of time to fight for some islands in the South Atlantic that most average Britons hadn’t even heard of (when the news first broke I thought they were some islands off the coast of Scotland!). However, as time has passed I think the UK definitely made the right decision to fight to liberate the islands from the Argentineans.

From a political viewpoint the Falklands war couldn't have happened at a better time for the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was not doing that well in the opinion polls, and if they were to be believed was heading for a defeat at the next General Election. The war boosted the UK population's opinion of the Conservative Government and Margaret Thatcher went on to win the election in the summer of 1983 with a thumping majority. In the same way General Galtieri was also fighting for his political life. He thought that invading the Falklands would bolster his standing and redirect people's attention away from issues such as the Argentinean economy that was in deep trouble (inflation at 600%) and the mass disappearance of people at the hands of the junta that was causing major unrest. In the end the UK was victorious and it was Galtieri’s head that rolled.

Nemo

Breshnev took Afghanistan,
Begin took Beirut,
Galtieri took the Union Jack;
and Maggie, over lunch one day,
took a cruiser with all hands,
apparently to make him give it back.

Falklands war your views
 

I remember that song, who made it?
:D

whats 'SoCal' mean sat over southern 'c'alifornia, and decide to stomp over it mexican s6tyle


B4 u fuk over facklands war u locked away turd, reserach it

Maybe what we remember in Iraq with AMerican troops in 20 yrs time

Re: Falklands war your views
 

Roger Waters (as in Pink Floyd)

wtf Damo... lol you been boozing again m8?
Don't see any connection with Falklands and Iraq myself. I recon if Maggie had been in charge of invading Iraq, I'm fairly sure she'd have removed the velvet glove and dished out a dose of iron fist(ing) treatment to saddam the first time round :rotfl:

Well, a lot of UK friends in this forum topic.

For the UK, was a limited war, one of many post WWII conflicts (Korea, Suez, Burma...)

For us Argentinians was a total war. One still fresh in individuals and colective memory.

About my point of view, the recuperation (not invasion) of the Malvinas, by force, was a huge mistake.

Note that I only regret the use of force (and sure, the death of people from both sides).

But the goal of the war was (and still is) just. Malvinas Islands are a part of the argentinian territory, mutilated by a british expedition, back in 1883.

Controversial, isn´t???

An Argie point of view.

Which unfortunately is not relavant anymore, as anyone alive when Argentina owned the islands is now dead and gone, and most of the Falkland's (or Malvinas, whatever) population in 1982 (many of whom were born and raised there) wanted to remain under British rule and still do. Why should Argentina own the islands if the local population doesn't want that?

What the CIA says about the Falklands:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/fk.html

Bearing this in mind, I want to make clear that no slur was intended in my first post - 'damn argies' being a tounge in cheek statement, not some deep seated hatred or whatever.
Remembering way back then, I would have been at primary school or something, so any direct influence to me was minimal to say the least. In my view this was a fight over a principal more than anything else; if no-one had been looking, or if international appearances were not important to world leaders/countries, then I doubt that a great deal of fuss would have been made over such a windswept and (by all accounts) inhospitable bit of rock in the middle of nowhere. Still, I suppose there are countries who have gone to war for less...
Having said that, the choice of who the islands belong to is really a question for the folk who have their homes there imo. So if the 'currrent majority' want/wanted to be british, so be it... I'd probably feel the same way if they wanted to be argentinian.
All too often (and I do not exclude the UK from this) countries dwell needlessly on the past and of history long gone- pretty much every border dispute since the year dot is based upon this simple, if irrational precept. 'Great Brittain' owned half of the world at one point and they didn't get it by playing fair, it's true, but what have we now? where is the 'empire' today? dead and consigned to the history books where it belongs. The days of empire building are over... for us brits anyway :88) :doh:

The Falklands...I just missed that one but yes...Maggie.
A bit of a show for the Iron Lady who was getting worried about losing her grip...kinda like Clinton's trip into Kosovo. The tabloids loved it, particularly the Sun :oops:

Very interesting to read an Argentinian's point of view, thanks.

I've always had a problem with 'posession' of territory, does the present day Australian own Australia or does it belong to the Aborigine who was quite happy living there before they arived? The same could be asked about the USA and Nativa American Indians or the current South Americans and native Incas or Mayans. Not great examples as in all cases the original inhabitants are now co-existing, to a greater or lesser extent, with the settlers. At the end of the day, it seems to me to be the old 'posession is 9/10ths of the law' rule :o

In the case of the Falklands, as with all wars, it was a waste of life. What sticks in my mind was the lack of information we were getting about what was happening, it was taking several days for news to get back to the UK as all information channels were controlled by the military, compare that with recent 'realtime' news of the gulf conflicts!

I've known Royal Marines and Submariners who served in the conflict, the common thread they have is an extreme reluctance to discuss it - war is not glamorous.

The most interesting technical point (in my opinion) of the conflict was Chris Wreford Brown's decision to use WWII vintage Mk8 torpedoes rather than the new Tigerfish torpedoes when he attacked the ARA General Belgrano (another terrible loss of life). This must have been quite a slap in the face for BaE systems who made the new torpedo!

Obviously the American Indians and the Australian Aborigines had way too lax immigration policies! :roll:

:D

Sorry, I introduced a mistake im my post: HMS Clio kicked Malvinas Governor´s J. Vernet in 1833 not 1883!

My fault.

Since then, and until today, the Argentine Goverment, every year, submited a protest note, to the UK and, from 1945, to the UN.

So, from an argentinian aspect of the problem, it´s about an illegitime attack and seizure of territory, by a foreing power.
(Similar problemas around the globe: Think about the Kurile Islands, Japan and Russia. Japan still claims the islands were it´s territory, and the usurpation was 60 years ago.)

And about the war, I know some veterans (a couple of Infantry army officers and navy personnel). Yes, as lesrae said, they are reluctant to talk about the war. But If I could extract some from the books, I think the most important lessons from the war were:

1) Technology means a lot in modern warfare (SHAR´s with winders won the aerial war, and SUE´s with Exocets ruled the sea)
2) Good training and motivation is the other half of the equation (I could think in Royal Marines, Paras, Royal Artillery, Argentine Air Force)
3) Back in the 80´s, UK girls were ugly (al least those filmed in the piers when HMS Invincible sailed to the south)