No evidence of threat to falklands

"NO EVIDENCE OF THREAT TO FALKLANDS" shouts the Daily Express headline.

No bloody evidence of any way to defend the islands if there were either, no aircraft carriers, no Harriers ... sheesh!

Oh really?!

Sometimes I despair, I really do.

/rant

 

There never is, until it happens. A little bit late, then.rolleyes

 

Dude, you are worrying too much.
We have Spec Ops on site, they just don't tell you.

The level of defence at any particular location is governed by the relative importance of the location.

The Falkland's are held in such regard that they get a single "Spec Ops" team on 24/7 standby.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sqONSNQZcUo/Td0yFwVUvuI/AAAAAAAAAbs/uTaJKp_Svhs/s1600/DadsArmyBBC_468x474.jpg

We're British!... we got it in hand good Sir.

 

I'm confused? There is no credible threat since the democratic Argentina has eschewed the use of violence to take back the falklands and we are not moving forces toward the non threat.

So nothing has happened then? :-D

If we're inventing an imaginary war with and imaginary foreign state why don't we just use the 50 imaginary carrier ships we have?:-D

This is all brought about by arms industry lobbying due to the recession,its such a non issue IMO...

We spend the third most in the world on the military,I think there'll be some dry powder knocking around if it kicks off...

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

 

Yes sirree! Actually these soldiers look like they were appointed (by the iron lady in the eighties) to defend the falklands. :-D Same ones still there I suppose?

 

LoL! @ Dad's Army. Seems that's what Britain's attitude to defense becomes after being at peace for a bit too long. Need a reminder every now then, that defense is always a waste of money and resources - until you need them. A bit like insurance. Yeah, you save a lot of money, until you have that inevitable disaster and wish to Hell you were insured.rolleyes

Nah, they are the ones appointed by Winnie, (Churchill) in the forties. The "Broomstick Brigade". So-called because they only had broomsticks instead of rifles to train with,originally.
Mind you - our uniforms were pretty similar at about the time of the Falklands war. I was in the army at the same time period, but different theater of war. The uniforms sucked big-time in the bush/tropics.

 

The geezer on the left probably sold them all.

Like the UK gov't just did with our 'old' Harrier stocks - to the US Marine Corps to be used for spares ...

 

lol Sir you seem to be dreaming of war :major

Nah I don't know whats happened to the UK forces, keep selling stuff and shrinking down. But then again the UK mainland is not really under threat from direct attack, internal attack yes, but breaching the shores? Not a chance. Too much land and borders to cross, unless the French invade again lol
And the only ones likely to invade the Falklands are the Argentines... and if they do... I guess we'll ... do something then, for now... put kettle on and lets 'av a cuppa

 

It may as well have, back in the beginning of WWII. The Home Guard was called the"Broomstick Brigade" for a reason - they left all their equipment behind at Dunkirk - defending the wretched French again.rolleyes I say "wretched", because half of them were Nazi collaborators, ( Vichy France).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France.
They also provided the Argentinians with the Exocet missiles during the Falklands campaigns, which was about the only thing that caused significant British casualties.

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

No Sir, I dream of "peace through strength", as J.F.K. put it. "Nobody detests war more than the soldier.", isn't just a cool sounding cliché. It's true for nearly everyone who has actually walked the walk.

I live in a country that's still part of the British Commonwealth. I would hate to be invaded by, say Indonesia, for example, (which they would do in a heartbeat if they could get away with it, trust me), and have no one who gives a toss about "that piddly little country on the other side of the world". Like what the American and British attitude was in WII, until they realized that war is everyone's business, eventually.rolleyes

 

It's true, the Falklands issue is escalating once again with the current female Argentine honcho. Remains to be seen what Britain's ultimate resolve will be if Argentina commences blockading or invasion. I doubt it will be as resolved compared to when the Iron Lady had the reins.

 

Found a pretty informative article as to what's been going on.

http://www.cherwell.org/blogs/no-minister/2012/02/23/fight-the-falklands-furore

Let the Argies have the islanders just stay away from our oil:mad

 

The Falklands has never been Argentinian, the islands aren't even that close to Argentina. It is a British colony, inhabited by British. It is the responsibility of any country to defend it's territory and it's inhabitants.
People have short memories. WWI & II were both over defending sovereign nations from foreign invaders. They weren't even their own counties, originally. Everyone got involved later on, as war tends to do. How much more so should a Nation be involved when it's supposed to be defending it's own people?
It's not like the Brits are just trying to expand their 'Empire'. But just plain and simple defending it's people.
Back in 1982, Britain was thinking about handing the Falklands over to Argentina, anyway. The war was just a political stunt to try and legitimize a tin-pot Dictatorship and distract from their domestic issues. The rest is history, as they say.

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

So, Argentina Dictators thought that Britain would just make loud noises and not actually directly do anything about it. They were wrong. I would hope they would be wrong again if they try a similar publicity stunt at the expense of an, albeit very small, nation.
That's how I see it, as someone old enough to remember it well., i.m.o.

Now - enough of politics. It just disturbs me that many people have the attitude that it's just a piddly little country that no one cares about, anyway. Kinda tough if it happens to be your country.

 

Just to clarify, because it may have come across wrong, I whole heartedly believe we should defend every inch of the Realm. My point was making fun of the gov because the way they have been handling things the last 6 years. It's odd because I left just before this whole recession hit so when I left it was still fine, did I break something in the cosmos? lol
I'm English and bloody proud of it and am saddened at the state my country has fallen into, but she's been through much worse and she will rise again. There'll always be a backbone.
Man that sounds cheesy when I read that back :-D

 

In 1981 the total defense of the Falklands was just 12 Royal Marines and when the Argentine forces invaded they did not catch them all,7 of them continued to run a skirmish attack action untill the main attack force arrived.
I was a serving Royal Marine at the time and the detachment on the Falklands was known as 8901 squadron and were part of an antarctic survey detachment from HMS Endurance and spent 6 moths at a time on the Island.
It was never a problem until Argentine scrap metal merchants started cutting up some old ships and were asked to leave that the Argentine government got involved and they thought that GB would do nothing (boy were they wrong)
The British government knew trouble was brewing long before it all went off but the so called brains decided it was just bluster and no one would dare invade a sovereign territory (boy were they wrong) and Margaret Thatcher used it as a giant PR stunt to bolster her flagging government.
A lot of people died in that conflict and if the UK had reacted earlier by sending a gunship it could have all been avoided but as they say "the rest is history".
Now there is oil at the center of this dispute and just like the last time they are doing nothing until it is too late.

 

I kinda feel like Nedlamar now aswellrolleyes The oil/islander comment was just a joke,after reading a few more articles my earlier post that its a non issue seems a little wayward also.

What does Argentina want this time? The oil? The Island? We don't know what's happened behind closed doors,have Argentina exhausted all diplomatic options before these stunts?

EDIT I think they've picked the wrong prime minister to mess with also.

 

Now THAT, is the kind of thinking that put the "Great" in Great Britain :major

Thatcher messed up a lot of things but she proved it was a bad idea to annoy her or threaten her country.
Poor Old John Major was a bit of a wet weekend in a thunderstorm after Thatcher.

Have you ever noticed that all the really good Brit Leaders were the epitome of pompous English snobs? Awesome.

Ohhh I gotta find a video.... dammit can;t find it, it was Al Murray bouncing an inflatable Globe and then says "This is what it feels like to be British" :-D
The dude is awesome. Which is the kind of thinking that made Britain what it was up until John Major to now. Big headed awesomeness :-D
Wont post any vids because he's a little close to the knuckle politically.

 

I hate most of Tory "US conservative" economic policy but usually when it hits the fan and someone needs to take action they do it while labour are still drafting arrangements for new talks.

Cameron is more patriotic than just about any leader I've seen in the last few years and when it comes to taken action as he's proved in Libya,he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

Argentina should have started talks or made a serious bid for the islands while Tony Blair was in power he may have worked something out with them but not now,they've missed the boat as it were:-D

Looking at the map and the location of the Falkland oil boundary I wouldn't think it unfair if they came to some kind of agreement where the oil was shared or Argentina became its protectorate but I doubt that will happen now after their current action.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17157373

and wasn't there some issue with Grenada at the same time in 1983?

 

Wow!Quite a deterrent force!

 

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/305304/We-give-27m-aid-to-Argentina

This is so British,are we too right honorable?

 

It happens a lot. Like Aust. sends troops to Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. and at the same time is paying illegal immigrant criminals from the same countries $10,000 cash gifts, free mobile phones, etc. While immigrants, (legal ones) from the U.K. have to jump through flaming hoops and prove that their an asset to the country.
We don't have to live in Alice in Wonderland to have a crazy world inhabited by Mad-Hatters.rolleyes

 

Britain does not give aid directly to Argentina but they pay into the EU and IMF who distribute aid to various countries but i can not understand why they need aid when they have huge military or space programs, no doubt most of this so called aid ends up in the pockets of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

One thing Britain is sooo British about is the Human rights law because they are the only country that slavishly adheres to it,Here in Belgium (the so called center of EU) we send them home if they do not contribute to the economy.

 

The funny thing about that Bill is most of us "people" don't agree with the majority of human rights BS, it's the Government following the footsteps of the US from way back when.
It is in need of a serious overhaul and has been for a long time.
Trouble is too many people jump on the "That's against human rights" wagon which as we all know has gone way too far.