One thing leads to another
On this day when we celebrate our victory in recapturing the Falkland Islands 25 years ago I was minded to wonder: If we had not fought, or had fought and lost, would we have been so quick to take part in invading Afghanistan or Iraq?
The real secret of the victory in the Falklands - as has been retold recently - was the vast quantity of aid we received from the US in terms of both equipment and intelligence. Then secretary of defence Caspar Weinberger (allegedly without President Reagan's formal authority) swung the Pentagon entirely behind supporting UK forces. I don't know if it would actually have been impossible for us to win alone but look how tough it was with their help.
Listening to the recording of a typically jingoistic Margaret Thatcher talking to the crowd outside Downing St. on the morning of the Falklands victory you might as well have gone back to V.E. day.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country," when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
But Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!
[From 'Tommy' by Rudyard Kipling]
The middle east looks like a powder keg right now and we in Britain, by our staunch allegiance to our long time war partner the US, have played our part in making it so. But I have to wonder if, without that fanning of nationalistic flames 25 years ago and the allied debt to America, would we have been so quick to get involved in the first gulf war campaign? And again in Afghanistan? Iraq?