"When you are at war you cannot allow difficulties to dominate your thinking".
Thus
Margaret Thatcher in her memoirs
of her recalls the difficult decision to intervene militarily in the South Atlantic to retake in 1982 the Falkland Islands invaded by the troops of the Argentine military dictatorship who had renamed them with their Spanish name of Malvinas.
Tomorrow marks the
40th anniversary of the end of that conflict
which can be considered the last great individual military glory of the United Kingdom and which is celebrated as such by the institutions and above all by the veterans' associations, even more so if we consider that London is committed to close military cooperation and arms supply to Russia-invaded Ukraine.
The naval and land force expedition ordered by the then conservative premier, even against the will of the American allies led by President Ronald Reagan, reached its goal after two months and twelve days (from April 2 to June 14, 1982) with the return of the Overseas territory under the motherland,
the humiliating defeat of the troops of Buenos Aires
, and a budget of
almost a thousand dead
, 255 British and 649 Argentines.
The war was thus over but
the long dispute over the islands continued over the decades
.
There is no lack of parallels with current events.
In London, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been compared to Thatcher: how she is experiencing a period of severe internal difficulty, with her shaky leadership, and the choice to show herself as Volodymyr Zelensky's closest Western leader to Ukraine, he suggested a someone the expression of a
"Falkland moment" for BoJo
.
However, if at the beginning of the war in the European country Johnson's readiness to support Kiev strengthened him within his conservative party and even with respect to the opposition, the prolongation of hostilities goes against his interests, and this was also seen on the occasion of the recent vote of no confidence among Tory deputies passed by the premier but with some difficulty.
Other similarities
can be found in a recent statement by the Defense Minister, Ben Wallace, who compared Vladimir Putin to General Leopoldo Galtieri: to conquer the Falklands "he sent young soldiers to die for his personal political reasons".
While it must be remembered that the royal family also played a role in the conflict,
with Prince Andrew on the front line as a helicopter pilot
and even decorated, recent scandals and the revocation of military titles and ranks have also overshadowed that contribution of him.
However, there are major differences from the past.
The
Iron Lady fought against a modest enemy
compared to Russia and especially in two months she ended the game.
However, the repercussions of those weeks of iron and fire remain.
Buenos Aires, even with the current president Alberto Fernández, repeats the national slogan, which is found almost everywhere, from institutional offices to road signs: "The Malvinas are Argentine".
The claim of the "Malvinas" therefore remains as a right
, reaffirmed by international organizations, net of the football revenge obtained by
Maradona's 'mano de Dios' at
the 1986 World Cup in the quarter-finals between Argentina and England.
The tensions between London and Buenos Aires have not been lacking in recent years: they have concerned for example the oil fields found off the islands and more generally the bilateral relations marked by that war not yet consigned to the history books.
