How Defiant Falklanders Live With the Threat of War

With Britain and Argentina ratcheting up the military rhetoric, Falkland Islanders recall the 1982 conflict, and how the islands, and their lives, have transformed since.
A collective sigh emitted from approximately 2,000 Falkland Islanders this week as the long-suffering population attempted to get on with day-to-day life, in the face of dramatic newspaper headlines from British and international newspapers claiming an Argentine military invasion was imminent.

Britain announced this week it would spend $267 million over 10 years to “beef up” the Falklands’ defenses because of the “continuing threat” represented by Argentina. This, Argentina said, was a “provocation.”

Falkland Islander Jonathan Summers, 36, said: “It does appear the media and politicians are dramatizing it for their own benefit—the situation with Argentina is intrusive enough without it being sensationalized by people who don’t have to live with it on a daily basis.”

Just 3 years old when Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands in 1982, Summers said he only has vague images of the 74-day conflict between Britain and Argentina. But as a result of the ever-present political pressures from Argentina, like every other Islander young and old “the war” doesn’t seem like ancient history while the cold war continues.

“You never quite know what they’ll be up to next,” he said of the Argentine government. “But it generally involves threatening international companies that have some kind of connection with our industries. To be honest, nothing they could do would be too much of a surprise.”

In 1982, I lived with my grandmother in Stanley, the islands’ capital city. The daughter of East Falklands sheep farmers, like other children from “the Camp” (the name Islanders give to the rural areas outside of Stanley) I boarded in the capital in order to attend school.

In the early hours of April 2, 1982, my grandmother woke me with the words: “Wake up, Pet. The shooting’s started. You’ll have to come downstairs, I can hear guns.”
Read more   HERE 

Yes Argentina, we do have nuclear submarines.

Argentina has stepped up its sabre-rattling rhetoric over the Falkland Islands by accusing Britain of sending nuclear missiles to the South Atlantic.The South American country's foreign minister claimed that Trident nuclear missiles were being carried on board a submarine deployed to the region by the Royal Navy.
It comes as tensions continue to rise over the islands, which are claimed by the Argentinians as their territory.
The allegation was immediately rebuffed by a senior British diplomat, who also described claims by the Argentinians that military bases on the island could be used to launch attacks on South America as "absurd".
Hector Timerman, the Argentinian foreign minister, accused the British of sending the nuclear submarine into a nuclear-free zone and lodged a formal protest at the United Nations.He said Britain was "militarising the region" after the Royal Navy sent one of its most advanced warship to the islands, and as Prince William enters the second week of his six-week tour of duty there as an RAF search and rescue pilot Read More   HERE


Yes Argentina, we do have nuclear submarines, we even have conventional ones, you don’t like our submarines do you? Remember the Belgrano? Your navy is rotting and sinking away in your dockyards, your Country is broke, you even owe us millions. But rather than pay your debts you would rather make idol threats. So unless you want the Royal Navy to change Buenos Aires into a car park, you would be advised to wind your necks in. Don’t worry you would be able to build some slums again in a thousand or so years.

BRITISH ARMED FORCES

The Argies dont do things legally

Britain signed what is called the “Optional Clause” decades ago – long before the Falklands War in 1982. This clause allows any country to bring a case against Britain at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about any subject. This would be well-known to international lawyers in Argentina. So they must have been reluctant to go to the ICJ for fear of losing.

Argentina has been criticised for going to war without first going to the ICJ. Argentina did agree to accept the result of the arbitration with Chile over the disputed Beagle Channel islands, but then reneged on this when it lost and rejected the result.

Also Britain invited Argentina to go to the ICJ several times over the Falklands Dependencies (particularly South Georgia) because of Argentine harassment there. Britain eventually tried to take the case to the ICJ unilaterally, but Argentina refused.

BATTLE OF THE SOMME

BATTLE OF THE SOMME

LAND GIRLS

 WOMENS LAND ARMY

ZULU BATTLE OF ISANDLWANA

Winston Churchill

Tweet


Winston Churchill

I Think This Says It All

I THINK THIS MAN HAS IT ALL COVERED. I COULDN'T SPOT ANYTHING HE LEFT OUT. "I am the Tory Party's Worst Nightmare. I am a White, Tax-Paying, God fearing English man. I am a hard working Brit and I work long hours to earn a living.  I believe in God and the freedom of religion, but I don't push it on others. I believe in British products and buy them whenever I can.  I believe the money I make belongs to me and not to some governmental functionary, to share with others who don't work! I think owning a home doesn't make you a capitalist; it makes you a smart Brit. I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. Get over it. Join in with the majority!  I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, you should do it in English. I believe there should be no other language option. I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to.  My heroes are fellow Brits like Freddy Flintoff and Winston Churchill and I know I've missed a few thousand!!!!! I don't hate the rich. What I hate is the way they always manage to avoid paying proper taxes. I don't pity the poor, I just hate the way they are always moaning that they are hard done by!! I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time watching or arguing about it. I believe if you don't like the way things are here, go back to where you came from and change your own country!  This is Britain .....We like it the way it is and even more so the way it was...so stop trying to change it to look like some other socialist country! If you were born or legally migrated here and don't like it... you are free to move to any Socialist country that will have you. I believe it is time to really clean house, starting with the House of Commons, the seat of our biggest problems. I want to know where the "Do Gooders" get their money from, and why are they always part of the problem and not the solution? Can I get an AMEN on that one? I also think the cops have the right to pull you over if you're breaking the law, regardless of what race, colour or creed you are. And, no, I don't mind having my face shown on my driving licence. I think it's good.... I dislike those people trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause....Get a job and support yourself and your family! I believe 'illegal' is illegal no matter what the lawyers think! I believe the Union Jack flag should be allowed to be flown anywhere in the United Kingdom ! If this makes me a BAD Brit, then yes, I'm a BAD Brit. If you are a BAD Brit too, please forward this to everyone you know.... We want our country back! My Country..... I hope this offends all illegal aliens.  My great, great grandfather watched as his friends died in the Boer War. My grandfather watched and bled as his friends died in World Wars 1&2. I watched as my friends died in Sierra Leone Bosnia, & Desert Storm. Our sons and daughters watched & bled as their friends died in Afghanistan and Iraq . None of them died for the Afghanistan and Iraq Flag. Every Briton died for the British flag. At one high school, foreign students raised a Middle East flag on a school flag pole. British students took it down. Guess who was expelled...the students who took it down.  West London high school students were sent home, because they wore T-shirts with the Union Jack flag printed on them. What is going on?? What idiots do we have in authority?? Enough is enough.  This message needs to be viewed by every Brit; and every Briton needs to stand up for Britain . We've bent over to appease the Brit-haters long enough. I'm taking a stand. I'm standing up because of the millions who died fighting in wars for this country, and for the British flag. And shame on anyone who tries to make this a racist message. IT IS NOT ! Britons, stop giving away Your RIGHTS ! THIS IS OUR COUNTRY ! This statement DOES NOT mean I'm against immigration ! YOU ARE WELCOME HERE, IN MY COUNTRY, welcome to come legally:  1. Get a sponsor ! 2. Learn the LANGUAGE, as immigrants have in the past! 3. Live by OUR rules ! Dress as we Britons Do 4. Get a job ! 5. Pay YOUR Taxes ! 6. No Social Security until you have earned it and paid for it ! 7. Find a place to lay your head ! If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone, then YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM ! We've gone so far the other way... bent over backwards not to offend anyone.  WAKE UP BRITAIN ! ! ! If you do not Pass this on, may your fingers cramp ! Made in BRITAIN & DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!!!" AMEN"