Darth Vader Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 The Sunday express has exclusively reported today that Argentinian politicians are calling for Margaret Thatcher to be prosecuted for War Crimes over the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falkland Islands conflict. As PM she ordered the sinking of the General Belgrano a large Argentinian battleship which was inside the British enforced 200 mile exclusion zone around the Islands. A British sub sank the ship with a torpedo and hundreds of lives were lost. Personally I think the PM did right in sinking the ship and those Argies need to get a life. The Falkland Islanders are proud to be british. I hope Blair NEVER gives any control of them to the Argentinians Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 As PM she ordered the sinking of the General Belgrano a large Argentinian battleship which was inside the British enforced 200 mile exclusion zone around the Islands. A British sub sank the ship with a torpedo and hundreds of lives were lost. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> "then 36 nautical miles (58 kilometres) outside the total exclusion zone – tried to make sense of the conflicting signals, the cruiser was torpedoed" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I always thought the Belgrano was outside the exclusion zone at the time of the incident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhumsaa Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 It's hardly a war crime..... worse things have happened Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alias Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I know it was dirty play and all, but don't xxxx with fire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Vader Posted June 5, 2005 Author Share Posted June 5, 2005 I welcome declan's correction that the ship was outside the exclusion zone. Apologies to all. Despite that I still think the vessel was a legitimate target because the Argentinians had invaded the Falkland Islands. Any military vessel with an Argentine flag during that war was a legitimate target wherever it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Sunday Express = troll newspaper. Stories which are designed to wind you up. At least as bad as the Daily Mail. Judge them by their classified adverts for rubbish. Adverts which are aimed at the sort of people who read that kind of rubbish. And they know their readership. The Falklands War was a total waste of life. If Argentina hadn't invaded they'd have got them back years ago. That was the Foreign Office policy which Mrs Thatcher supported as PM. She wasn't in the least bit interested in the islands until the Argentinians invaded. Then she sacked a very good Foreign Secretary who had been following her policies. Mrs Thatcher had a good war after the invasion. So did HM Navy. Despite the fact the the war exposed the idiocy of building warships out of (was it) aluminium. She did very well out of her ability to send people to their deaths. People saw her as a strong leader. Thatcher ordered the Conqueror to sink the Belgrano despite knowing that it was outside of the 'exclusion zone'. But the notion of an 'exclusion zone' was idiotic. Either we were at war or we weren't. As a war leader she was probably right to sink the ship. But Britain shouldn't have been at war over a group of islands in the South Atlantic. A group of islands which nobody, including Mrs Thatcher, cared about before the invasion. It was a stupid war more than 20 years ago. I'd have respected her more if she would have said honestly that she didn't care about the Falklands until the invasion. She never said that. I remember very well the morning after the Belgrano was sunk. Lots of Brits were excited and jubilant. There was no sense of the horror. The Sun said 'Gotcha'. A day or two days later they sank one of our ships. HMS Sheffield IIRC. And Britain blamed the French for selling missiles - rather than blaming the arms trade and deciding to campaign against it. At a time when Britain and the US was arming Saddam's Iraq against Iran, the Kurds and other anti Saddam groups. War is stupid. So is the Sunday Express and the people who read it. It's a deeply crappy little rag. The Falkands was a deeply nasty and silly little war. More than 20 years ago. It was a failure of the Thatcher government and their mixed signals which resulted in the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germann Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 It wasn't a 'war', but a 'conflict'. Therefore the Belgrano wasn't a legitimate target. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I understand that at the end of 'hostilities' the leaders on both sides signed something to say that neither country would pursue the other for 'war crimes'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhumsaa Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 They probably did.... what the hell is any of these documents worth these days? Change of government and it all changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 It wasn't a 'war', but a 'conflict'. Therefore the Belgrano wasn't a legitimate target. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Semantics. In the same way that the internees in Guantanamo aren't 'prisoners of war' but 'enemy combatants'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhumsaa Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 those guys are just poor bastards having war crimes inflicted upon them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posters Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Glad you agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonan3 Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 At the time that it happened I was filled with despair; believing then, as I still do, that it was a criminal act which caused the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of young men. That was 20 years or so ago and nothing will be now be achieved by pursuing it except, perhaps, a slight increase in the sales of a newspaper which is on the verge of extinction because of it's short-sighted view of the world. If there is an afterlife (which, unfortunately, I doubt) then the Thatcher creature would have to spend eternity facing the accusations of those poor sailors that she unnecessarily sent to a watery grave. In this life, however, she will continue to be hated by those who saw through the persona that her spin doctors created and loved by those who who welcomed her policies of greed and selfishness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germann Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Maggie Thatcher is dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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