Argentina & The Falklands

They wouldn't be stupid enough to try again, would they?

No. But this time they are trying the political posturing first. They won't try an armed assault because of the pasting they took last time. And there's slightly more than 30 marines and an Arctic Survey vessel there now.

Wasn't one of the major precursors to the '82 invasion the removal of the Arctic survey vessel.

I have to make known a vested interest in that I lost family in the regaining of the Falklands, I should hate for his and my family's sacrifice to ignored by us ever considering handing over to the Argies.

Argentina has no valid claim to the Falklands, we nicked them off the Spanish and got the deal enshrined in law via an appropriate treaty, the Spanish had previously nicked them from the French by force of arms, all this before Argentina existed as a political entity.

Perhaps more important are the issues of self determination by the population and the fact that Kirchner is one wizened hideous bitch.

We should maintain an adequate military presence to deter the beef eating surrender monkeys from having another go, as a strategic issue I would put it 57 rungs above Afghanistan in order of importance, oil and fish will be far more important in the future than the futile attempt to turn Afghanistan into a fee paid up member of the gang of so called democracies.

You are sort of right. The Argies saw our declaration that we were no longer going to fund HMS Endurance as an indication that we no longer had a vested interest on the South Atlantic.

At the time the military Junta was both financially and morally bankrupt and had to do something to restore it's favour amongst the populace. So they decided it was a good time to take the Falklands.

This time round though, they realise they haven't a cat in hell's chance of taking them militarily so are whinging and whining to the UN about how we are flexing our muscles on their doorstep. It's a British dependency, if we want to send 10 warships down there, we can. They don't want us down there so they can start an economic blockade of the islands, something that is potentially more of a problem if they get all the other latin countries on their side. Luckily, there is no love lost between the Argies and the Chileans, who have always traditionally be our allies.

Cerbera wrote:

if we want to send 10 warships down there, we can.

I'm not sure we can you know, I should be quite surprised if we could you know, ten ships of the line , all available and in good enough nick to sail to the South Atlantic ? I doubt it.

One type 45, two subs, half a dozen Typhoons with a willingness to attack mainland targets in retaliation plus a pile of grunts would be more than enough to see off everything the Argies could put in the frame.

I was using that phrase as a figure of speech.

I doubt we have 10 serviceable surface ships any more.

If oil is discovered in Falklands territorial waters there will really be trouble.

pepsipete wrote:

If oil is discovered in Falklands territorial waters there will really be trouble.

There's loads of oil and gas been discovered inside the total exclusion zone, you've only got to look at Rock Hopper's share price.

It already has been Peps.

8 billion barrels worth. It wasn't economically viable to extract it though.........until recently.

The Argentinians can bleat all they like to the UN. It will do little more than create headlines. As a permanent member of the Security Council, the UK has a veto on any UN Resolutions.

As Cerbera pointed out further up the thread, it's the Chileans we need to keep on side. A vital air link originates in Chile. Argentina could close their airspace to this link which might cause a problem, but that might lose them some sympathy.

Could we defend the FI from another aggressive Argentinean attack? Difficult to answer, but probably yes. However, it would mean diverting resources from elsewhere. Lets not forget we have a Jubilee year, an Olympic year, our committments in Afghanistan and the Gulf region. It would be a stretch. Members of the Armed Forces have been committed to all these events/theatres.