The Falklands war

[fhaessig]

A.

Memory is hazy on the next one. France "helped" too by simply not supplying the Argentines MORE Exocet missiles. They had already sold them 5. I.

Acually 7, if the count the surface based ones.

Argentina had a order for 60 more air-launched exocets ( and brand new ones at that instead of the badly maintained ones they had ). It was stopped in the transit zone of CdG airport just after the argentinian invasion of the islands. A few more days would have seen them shipped. a couple weeks and they would have been in Argentina.

That's enough I would think. either place the order earlier, push for accelerated shipping or delay by a couple weeks.

 

[daniel_g]

Then I'd like to know what your sources are for the supposed eternal good behaviour of the Argentine troops, please. It's insulting to dismiss my views, which came from a very real possibility and are backed up by multiple sources as a 'British tabloid approach' simply because you don't agree with them.

Apologies - no insult meant!!

An example source - 5th Infantry Brigade in the Falklands War by Nick Van Der Bijl & David Aldea

"The Falklands campaign was a unique war of the 20th Century. There were no atrocities and both sides respected the rules of war governing the treatment of prisoners- of- war and of casualties."

This page also describes the deaths of Falkland Islanders by HMS Avenger's shelling:

http://www.falklands.info/background/lifearticle2.html

I have not identified any sources that show mis-treatment, other than the internment of the population of the Goose Green isthmus in Darwin Community Hall. If there are any sources,I'd be interested to hear.

 

[Wanderlust]

There are few sources regarding atrocities carried out by Argentine forces - but none of us are arguing that there were. We're arguing that we could expect to see them once the media coverage of the war died down.

It's clear that there men among the occupation forces who resorted to intimidation and violence (Major Patricio Dowling, for one, who liked to hood his suspects and cock guns against their heads [here] and [here] ), and also men who fought the islanders' corner. But as to the islanders' long-term prospects? We've already seen examples of how their wishes and ways of life were ignored, if not driven roughshod over. The lack of violence against the islanders can be more attributed to their lack of armed resistance than to good nature among the occupiers, many of whom, as have been claimed, were fresh from the 'Dirty War'. We start to see the Argentine secret police services at work, compiling information on the islanders, deporting those they consider undesirable [here]. This doesn't bode well for their long-term prospects. It becomes apparent that official Argentine policy regards the islanders as little more than colonists, brought in to replace a native population. Is that not slightly hypocritical of Argentina, being one of the most European by descent countries of South America? Moreover, is it hard to imagine then wholesale deportations of these English interlopers, whose culture is so alien to that of mainland South America?

 

[Astrodragon]

Did the argentinians commit atrocities? No.
Did they break accepted treatment of civilians in war zones? Yes.
Did they mistreat civilians? Yes, although not too badly.

However their plans were somewhat more drastic, and certainly the record of some of the officers posted to the islands doesn't lead to any confidence things wouldnt have got a LOT worse. Especially if, as a result of the task force not arriving or arriving late, the British resort to their traditional tactics of raids and harrassment, with consequential pressure on the civilian population.

So as the tales get out of how the islanders are being treated gets out, just what do you think the reaction of the British will be? Apart from the usualy professional aplogeticists and objectors, it will be to give the Argentinians a bloody good kicking. The harder the better (actually the reaction immediately after the invasion was already to do that, its not just going to quietly go away....)

While its true that governments dont always take account of what the people think, the day after the invasion the senior Conservatives (the people in the party who make and break Prime Minsisters) told Thatcher quite bluntly that if nothing serious (eg a taskforce) was done, the government would fall as a result of backbench (and some not on the backbench!) revolt.