Well its been 20 years and all this talk of the war has got me thinking… What does the rest of the world think of the Falklands campaign from the British perspective were we justified. Do you think we over reacted ect???
No. Someone invaded your territory —sparsely populated and all, but yours nonetheless— and you were essentially obliged to respond with a show of force. They didn’t back down, so it came to blows.
Overall, it was a very stupid idea on the part of a tottering Argentine junta to stay in power by focusing the population’s wrath on an artifically created external enemy.
Perhaps in time, a peaceful handover of the islands might have been worked out, but since Argentina made it a matter of national pride for the UK, it wil be many decades off if it ever happens.
It was a pretty well thought-out response to a pretty badly thought-out provocation, IMHO.
While the islands themselves were (are ?) perhaps inconsequential in the larger picture, setting a precedence for shrugging off land grabs would have been a really bad idea.
There was plenty of time for Argentina to back down while the Royal Navy was underways, but apparently they couldn’t or wouldn’t do so. Eventually a few hundred young men died for no purpose. Useless little war.
S. Norman
It was THE classic modern day “How Not to Pack for War” Primer for military deployments. No time for cites now, but I recall one ship had to stop enroute, unload everything, then reload it so the bandaids were not covering up all the bullets, or some such needed commodity. Combat Loading is a logistical puzzle, and it was not done well.
One of the persistent rumors about the Falklands War, was that the British wanted to hold onto the islands, because of large offshore oil depositis. Has anybody actually DRILLED for oil on the Falklands? And, was anything ever found? The Falklands must be some of the DREARIEST real estate known to man-and yet the British spend about $5 billion to get them back!
Yeah, never mind all the British citizens who suddenly found their home occupied by a hostile foreign military force…people do live there, you know…and they aren’t Argentinians.