Is Obama Betraying Britain?

Carroll Barry-Walsh

Let the US be neutral, then. But let's bring our army home from Afghanistan so that they can be used to defend our interests. And if the Argentinians want to play silly games again, let's say loudly that we will defend the islanders' right to self-determination and we note that the US won't stand up for such values. It's about time we got off our knees and stopped grovelling to the US.

Beefeater

The Munroe Doctrine might be in play. Always a convenient means to pretend to support the new world neighbours against old world machinations.

ndm

-- And of course, the UK can be annoyed because Washington calculates, not unreasonably, that in the end, Britain won't do much to frustrate US objectives elsewhere whereas the Latin Americans will in areas of policy in which Britain has next to no interest or stake.

Of course, were Britain to follow Harold Wilson's lead and say a considered NO to more American requests for cover in its military adventurism then perhaps the US would be more respectful of Britain's needs. Hopefully, the next British Prime Minister will be less willing to grab his ankles than was Tony Blair.

Olaf Rye

Hmmm ... did not the left in Britain oppose the Falklands War and insist that negotiation was best way forward ? I recall the chants of 'One, Two, Three, Four, I hope Argentina wins the war' being broadcast. Perhaps Argentina is counting on the lack of will and muddled thinking from Labour to win some symbolic victory.

The US undoubtedly wants to keep the Latin American nations relatively well disposed to their policy objectives and will not get involved in this unless absolutely necessary. A pity, though, because Argentina has precious little case for sovereignty over the islands.

Jez

Ok.... although this will be lost on this blog somewhere in the mainstream, here goes;

(this is the simplified version- it needs to be so i can understand it)

We have downgraded our Military capability

1.to save cost short term

2. to become part of a Global police-force long term.

The mainstream (this publication / web-site included) have signed up for gobalism / corporate expansionism / international free trade dogma......

.... so in theory there is no need for a nation state Army / Navy / Airforce... because you can have several unique ships, a specailist niche supply of vehicles of one sort and a few planes of another- because the conflict / wars of the future would always be the ones like Afghanistan; to open natural resourc.... sorry- I mean 'bring democracy' etc, etc.... so it would always be a 'coalition' army (combination of several UN / US ... maybe eventually PRC backed forces).

It is yet another fail of our political elite.

And now what do we do?

Argentina kicks off, the Latin world unites behind them.... because they see themselves as the same- e.g. 'Latin'- whereas we are told that we are 'global citizens' and not to do so would be racist, nationalistic and probably render that person uttering such blasphemy ruined at the hands of the Machine.

The same Latin type solidarity you would also find in Africa and Asia.

If there is a 'blip' in the overall globalisation plan e.g. a territorial dipute and the UK has to think / fight for itself, then we could have quite important issues to raise with ourselves on what exactly has been going on this past 40 years.

Sir Graphus

Tell him if we have to fight a war there, we'll take troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq to do it.

José

Argentina Constitution or Law of Laws, forbid war as a solution for the Malvinas conflict. But everybody is committed to a pacific negotiation probably with respect to islanders way of life. After almost 30 years of the war, and here we find the british public prone to the war talk. The first one was Gordon Brown that surprised everybody saying some nonsense about it. Here nobody was merely suggesting the possibility of a armed conflict. Having grown up in a society that admires british culture, with a lot of friends with british ascendance (a community of 100 thousand estimated, many ex Malvinas islanders)and having a peace-prone culture, it s a shock to perceive british public opinion as an enemy. Now, we can hear and read all kind of solutions named Typhoon, Vanguard, etc.
First at all, short-sighted. Costly for everybody, specially for islanders who will have to live in a conflict area for years on, with feelings of revenge everywhere, with a neighbour continent thatīll be hostile forever. Think that negotiation should be wise for all of us. The US have already assess this point and knows the cost of bigotry, I guess.

Drew

The US Congress ended up SUPPORTING the UK!
http://fpc.state.gov/6172.htm#President_as_Initiator

Aiden

As an American, let me say this is absolute rubbish! The island has always been majority British (when populated) and overwhelming rejects Argentine sovereignty. This is just another in a long line of examples of the Obama Administration doing whatever it can to undermine our allies for no good reason whatsoever. Please Brits, don't judge us on this fool!