One for Des

**** all, especially if it has to rely on making a vertical landing on
deck, which (I think) they had to do throughout the conflict[1].

[1] War, police action, disagreement, conker match, whatever.

 

Lozzo wrote

Why the merkins parked all their ships in Pearl Harbour was it? Cos it
was safer.

According to the modern way of selling it to us proles the first purpose
of any weapon owned/operated by gummint is deterrence and if that is not
enough to put Johnny Foreigner into a dizzy spin then we will kick crap
out of them with the aforementioned defensive weapon. Simple really.

Fucking sight simpler when I were a lad: "This thing Private is a
rifle. Never mind what yer fancy politicians say it is used for, in the
Harmy we use it for killing wogs. Now get out there and kill some and
make Britain a nicer place to come home to."

 

tallbloke wrote

Well see.... I can dig that the rules were that we would blow anything
away that simply wandered into the exclusion zone. Nobody seems to
argue one way or the other about the rights and wrongs of this.

However it does seem to me that if I were in Maggies position on this
one I would have seen a flotilla potentially carrying an invasion force
within a tank of petrol of the Falklands then fucking exclusion zone or
not it would have been a legitimate target.

 

It's over his head, innit?

 

You don't need to be a reader of reactionary drivel to be of the
opinion that the sinking of the Belgrano was justified.

I'm happy to sit on the fence on this one, given I know very few of
the facts, but I really do marvel at the effort several of you are
putting in to justifying your respective opinions - which is all they
are - when there is absolutely no hope of pursuading the other.

 

Only just.

 

It's a difference of emphasis. I had just arived in Durham the day the
Belgrano was sunk. I was due to meet a mate who'd gone to university
there, so I'd headed to one of the Union common rooms to grab a coffee
and wait for him. Durham is an OxBridge overspill kind of uni and all
the Hooray Henry's were sat in front of the TV cheering the sinking of
the ship. I was sickened at the loss of life. Just as I was sickened at
the loss of life on the Sheffield shortly afterwards. Of course when
that happened there was lots of muttering about the French having sold
exocets to them. The inability of these twots to do any joined up
thinking never fails to amaze me.

 

(The Older Gentleman) spouted the
following in

As is your conflation of a world war with a local action.

 

Did the declaration of the exclusion zone say that stuff outside of the
exclusion zone was safe?

Was it phrased:
a) "Don't come within 200 miles of the coast or we'll sink you"

or,

b) "If you stay more than 200 miles away from the coast we won't sink
you"


If b) then I can understand what people are wibbling about 'cos it
definitely seems a bit much. If a) then well, all's fair in love and
conflict.

 

About the same as his knowledge of English Dictionaries then?

 

The destroyers weren't sunk, the Belgrano was.

Know what a radio wave is? do you? really?

How do you interpret the meaning of the word 'anxious' in the above
context? 'Keen to' or 'In trepidation', Bearing in mind the problems
of translation etc.

"You will drop these claims or we will continue to make life
economically difficult for your country"

Ever heard of 'diplomatic pressure' Dodger?

Not very much. Had tornados too didn't they? Sorry, I don't take as keen
an interest in the tech specs of weapons of death as some round here.

 

We've been here before. It doesn't seem there's been a declared war
since 1945.

Oh, and Hood & Bismarck were sunk in May 1941, when the only major
combatants were Britain (OK, including Empire troops), Italy and
Germany. No Russia, no USA, no Japan. World war it wasn't, not then.

Seriously, tallbloke - opinions are fine, but for facts, you're on dodgy
ground here.

 

Out of interest, were you sickened at the loss of life when the Argies
actually invaded the Falklands?

 

wrote

I think it was more on the lines of

c) "Come within 200 miles and we will definitely sink you"

 

Diplomatic pressure had been tried, and rejected.

Britain had done something amazing, in rallying virtually the entire
world, and getting a UN Security Council resolution passed, demanding
that the Argies withdrew. This was, I think, one of the finest bits of
British post-war diplomacy, in that it was done in an extraordinarily
short time[1].

If such a resultion is ignored, what do you do? Answer: you can talk,
and talk, and talk for years. You can apply sanctions, and they go on
for years and often don't have much effect on the government they are
being aimed at (think Iraq, think Rhodesia, think Italy).

You are deeply, deeply ignorant about this sort of thing - opinion, as I
say elsewhere in reply to one of your posts, is fine, but when it comes
to hard facts, you;re wanting (I mean, you're the geezer who said the
attack on the Belgrano was in return for the Argies hitting Sheffield,
remember?)

[1] And I'm very proud that my Pa had something to do with it.

 

The Older Gentleman said...

Only 4 Argentinian servicemen lost their lives during the invasion. They
died when their helicopter was forced down over South Georgia on the
second day of the invasion.

No British forces lost their lives during the Argentinian invasion.

--
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http://www.glfuk.com/ for MJK Leathers in the UK.

 

Yes, I know. That's the point I was trying to make.

But lives were still lost. I was wondering whether he was sickened at
the quantity, or the fact that they were Argie, or whatever. I mean,
death is death, right?

 

One destroyer was hit, but the WWII vintage torpedo didn't explode.

No. I'm not a physicist. I do know, however, that when communicating,
a submarine takes some steps to avoid being an underwater Radio
Caroline.

Given the context in the same paragraph, I'd go with "Keen to", as
would most folk.

Dear oh dear. Are you in training for the World Straw Clutching
Championships or something?

No? You don't say.

 

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 17:06:38 +0000,

Italy?

 

Combat range is ~280 miles; max range ~2600 miles with external tanks
and watching the speed.

No

--
Ian
"reorganising, a wonderful method for creating an illusion of progress"
znvygb: (ROT13 all of it to mail me)
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