The Great Falklands Myth
As the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War arrives over the horizon like a rather fearsome storm cloud, the media hysteria in both countries is slowly building to a fever pitch. The British media, going through a periodic bout of jingoism, is awash with scaremongering over the state of the island’s defences; while the Argentine media is dominated by heated debate about the ‘militarisation’ of the islands and British imperialism. As this author has already discussed, the frequent articles released by men such as Admiral Sandy Woodward warning of the immense military vulnerability of the islands have very little grounding in reality. The military balance in the South Atlantic is very strongly rooted in the favour of the UK and this is unlikely to change in the near future. Of arguably much greater significance to the Falklands debate are the political and economic factors that dominate the current tensions. As will be shown there is neither the political will nor the economic capability for Argentina to attempt any kind of military action against the islands.
In recent months Argentina’s president Cristina Fernández has been making increasingly provocative statements about British control of the Falkland Islands. These have included accusing Britain of deploying a nuclear attack submarine to the region and that Prince William’s long scheduled deployment to the islands are acts that risk ‘militarising’ the South Atlantic. The timing of these…….[click here to access full article]
