Falklands War.

[lliam]

No heroes.
-------------


There were no heroes here
Amongst the men who tramped through
Rutted, quaking moor,
Or crawled, cat-silent,
Over skittering scree
To prove the way.

No heroes fought the blazing fires
Which sucked the very blood from
Ship and man alike.
Or braved knife cold
Without a thought
To save a life.


No heroes they, but ones who loved
Sweet life and children's laugh,
And dreamt of home
When war allowed.
They were but men.

[lliam]

Introduction.
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The Falkland Islands are a group of islands in the south Atlantic. The two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, lie 300 miles [480 km] east of the Argentina coast. About 200 smaller islands form a total land area of approximately 4,700 square miles (12,200 square km). The capital and only town is (Port) Stanley.
The government of the Falkland Islands administers the British dependent territories of South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, and the Shag and Clerke rocks, lying from 700 to 2,000 miles (1,100 to 3,200 km) to the east and southeast of the Falklands. The total population of the islands in 1991 was estimated at 2100.

Argentina has claimed the islands since about 1920. Britain had occupied and administered the islands since 1833 and had consistently rejected Argentina's claims.

The Falklands War, chronicled below, started after Argentina invaded and took control of the islands in April 1982.

During the war, the British captured about 10,000 Argentine prisoners, all of whom were released afterwards. Argentina sustained 655 men killed, while Britain lost 236. Argentina's ignominious defeat severely discredited the military government and led to the restoration of civilian rule in Argentina in 1983.

[lliam]

From an Argentinian ex-pat now living in the USA.
==================================================

I was drafted in April of 1982, just a few days after my birthday. I was turning 20 and I was in college in Bahia Blanca, province of Buenos Aires.
It was a rather surreal time in my life. I could not comprehend what was going on. Some people were acting as if that was the end of a long argument between Argentina and Great Britain, as if they thought that Margaret Thatcher was going to do nothing, or as if Argentina was fully equipped to take on such war enterprise. Even if the country was ready for a conflict of such magnitude, what the Argentine military government did was absurd and suicidal. It was all very scary.
I cannot believe that 20 years already went by and as I go through your [this] site and see these photographs a lot of memories still are fresh in my heart. Those days in 1982 seemed so long and so bitter. Fortunately, I was not sent to the archipelago due to the no-fly zone set by Thatcher around the islands. I think it was a matter or a day or two. I remember that day it was all over and a soldier friend of mine and I hugged long and strong and cried. Hell was over but our lives would never be the same. A generation had been seriously scarred, although not as much as the generation before (about 30 thousand missing).
I believe that a democratic government would have not proceeded that way. The military were very discredited at that time and they played with one of Argentina's fairy tales: the Malvinas are ours. As I write this letter I hear the voices of many fanatics (including my father) refuting what I state. However, I believe that none of them would give up the comfort of living in continental Argentina to move to the islands.
I am a pacifist and my argument is not intended to point out who was right and who was not, but to highlight that war is unnecessary, unfair, and sometimes unworthy. However, as a U.S. citizen today, I cannot sit and live in fear while waiting for the next terrorist blow; therefore if our country is under attack we must protect ourselves and reclaim what is ours: our right to live in freedom. I suppose that a similar sentiment was felt in England in 1982 when the Argentine military government invaded the islands. It was not the Argentine people who made that decision because we were not living in democracy; it was the last recourse of a group of dictators to hold up a crumbling bloody government.
I support dialogue and negotiation. If Argentina and the United Kingdom chose to spend the next centuries at the diplomatic tables negotiating about the Falklands is all right.
It is worth noting what positive changes took place in Argentina as a consequence of the war. Despite the losses in young human lives is the end of the corrupt military government, the unveiling of their genocide apparatus, the reinstatement of democracy and the right to seek answers about the estimated 30 thousand missing.