Falklands again . . . who’s in trouble?
IN 1982 the miserable military junta in Argentina was desperately unpopular so it decided to whip up a bit of patriotic fervour and invaded the Falkland Islands . . . to take back “the Malvinas”.
The Falklands War, as it became known, was also a bit of luck for another unpopular regime. In Britain the Thatcher government was going through a bad patch and it too needed to whip up some patriotic enthusiasm.
A handy little war in the South Atlantic was gilt on the Iron lady’s gingerbread and distracted public attention away from domestic problems.
Thatcher won and was re-elected, the Argentineans lost and for them it was the beginning of the end. But as they had never been elected anyway, nobody much mourned their passing.
The fact that several thousand soldiers, sailors and airmen on both sides lost their lives, well it was war and “stuff happens”. The Americans use the euphemism “collateral damage”.
The Falklands, or Malvinas, are known as a British Dependent Territory and that means pretty well what it says on the tin: they are dependent on the British, all 3,160 of them.
There are hundreds of small islands or rocks in the South Atlantic that make up the Falklands.
It is believed they were originally settled by Patagonian Indian fisherman but it appears that just about every European naval power that sailed round Cape Horn occupied them.
The French had a settlement, the Spanish then took it over, the British then acquired it, the Argentineans created a penal colony and in 1833 the British re-established a permanent colony for military purposes.
There is little doubt that the islanders want to remain British. It would appear they like red phone boxes, Ty-phoo tea, and probably thinly-cut cucumber sandwiches.
Yet they are an expensive luxury.
On Question Time last week, when the current situation was discussed, one of the audience asked if those servicemen in 1982 had died in vain. Sadly they did, just as the men who died in Iraq and those still dying in Afghanistan too have died in vain, or rather they have died for the vainglorious ambitions of cynical politicians.
That is not to take away from those young men and women the fact that they have fought with courage and demonstrated great fortitude. Trouble is that so often the young are sent to their death for nothing more than the vanity of politicians.
World War One was a hideous demonstration of barbarism . . . for what purpose?
In the end it was a war to expand imperial power in order to exploit the natural resources throughout the Middle East and Africa. In short that war was fought to ensure control of the oil fields.
In the Falklands we are investing millions of pounds of scarce resources. Does anyone really believe that 1,400 servicemen and 600 civilians are needed to protect the 3,160 islanders?
In a country that is cutting public services on a daily basis, reducing healthcare and education provision and even switching off street lights do we really need to provide the 3,160 Falklanders almost one to one security protection?
And of course when Prince William takes his chopper down there will there be even more security required.
It seems the best place to avoid austerity Britain is to live among the penguins on South Georgia.
If we are really all in this together, then the government must accept that a peaceful and negotiated settlement with the democratic government of Argentina must be arrived at. Even the Americans are arguing that a negotiated settlement is long overdue.
For those islanders who want to remain British, they can always come back to the welcoming motherland, or they can resettle in any part of the English-speaking Commonwealth. We can even give them a dowry to help them settle with their sheep.
A peaceful settlement . . . oh dear old naive me. I forgot, the Falklands are surrounded not just by sea, seabirds and penguins but there are vast undeveloped oilfields.
And of course BHP, the Australian oil company, and Anglo-Dutch have first claim on the black gold. It is estimated that there may be about £35 billion of oil waiting there.
It is assumed that those plucky islanders might well be in for a generous windfall. The return for the British government is less obvious although some sort of royalties might flow back.
So the islanders might be onto a good thing, better than selling stamps and eating penguins . . . and all at our expense.
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