dejas vu
Its the twenty fifth anniversary of the British declaration of war on Argentina over possession of the miniscule and remote Falkland Islands.Millions of people could not believe what they were seeingon TV...British warships actually steaming towards the Cape of Good Hope just north of the Arctic Ocean for a do or die showdown in the year of our Lord 1982?
It seem like an abberate throwback to some less civilized time because these kind of open imperialist aggressions just didn’t happen any more. But more than five hundred people died in combat so that Margaret Thatcher's proto neo- Conservative government,could retain control over these utterly insignificant islands.
We couldn’t know it at the time but the Falklands War was no accidental abberation.
The Falklands War turned out to be the first modern deliberate use of military aggression as a routine foreign policy.
It was the real beginning of the 21st century
It seem like an abberate throwback to some less civilized time because these kind of open imperialist aggressions just didn’t happen any more. But more than five hundred people died in combat so that Margaret Thatcher's proto neo- Conservative government,could retain control over these utterly insignificant islands.
We couldn’t know it at the time but the Falklands War was no accidental abberation.
The Falklands War turned out to be the first modern deliberate use of military aggression as a routine foreign policy.
It was the real beginning of the 21st century
posted by davef at 6:06 PM
1 Comments:
Hmm - proto-neocon government steaming south to take on a corrupt, despotic right-wing military junta. (Apologies for the virulent tortology). Then a short, brutal conflict with no 'collateral damage', no prisoner abuse, no Haliburton - seems a world away from the modern war over oil.
And it was never a 'war' - that involves diplomats, paperwork, and sweet little functions in the consulate. This was just a conflict - merely bayonets with a worker on each end.
The greatest shame of the 1982 conflict was the disgusting way the Argentine veterans (mostly conscripts) were treated, well mis-treated after the collapse of the Argentine junta. More died from suicide than battle. It was a common site at bus stations in Beunos Aires to see haggered shells of men in faded uniforms begging for change.
And don't forget the opinions of those who actually lived on the Falklands/Malvinas at that time. Strange how they really were not that keen on having a government who used death squads running their island, their home.
No oil, no great global crossroads, no WMD, no war on terror - just the inalienable right of people allowed to decide who governs them - no matter how small or far away they are.
And it never takes much to start a war - just look at Gavrilo Princip. The problem is once the monster is loose, it is hard to stop...
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