Argentina demands UK nuke apology

[Gangerolf]

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/07/uk.nukes.reut/index.html

GENERAL PICO, Argentina (Reuters) -- Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has demanded an apology from Britain for the "monstrous" act of arming its warships with nuclear depth charges during the 1982 Falklands war.

Silly Argies...

I wonder, what's the most "monstrous act": starting a war by invading some islands that doesn't want you there, or carry a couple of small nukes (which didn't even enter Argentinian waters, by the way) n your ships?

[Tripledoc]

I always wondered why the Argentinians did not simply send the entire British fleet to the bottom. This explains why.

[Chemical Ollie]

What are they complaining at? They got the revenge in the Football World Cup later that year, didn't they?

[CerberusIV]

Perhaps he would also like to ask G W Bush and also Putin for apologies for all the US and Soviet warships that have ever been within 200 miles of the Argentinian coast with nuclear weapons on board?

Perhaps not.

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
I always wondered why the Argentinians did not simply send the entire British fleet to the bottom. This explains why.

It's not like they didn't try. They did sink several ships IIRC

[KrazyHorse]

WTF are nuclear depth charges? Are they what they sound like (nukes to blow up subs)?

[Gangerolf]

yes

[KrazyHorse]

Okay. Did the Aregentines have much of a sub force?

[East Street Trader]

I would like a personal apology from everyone who brings a nuclear weapon anywhere near me or mine.

(Or near the Earth, come to think of it.)

But politicians get off on power. So I don't suppose I'll get one from them.

Maybe the guys who handle them are a better bet. But soldiers like powerful weapons so I guess I'd better not hold my breathe on that either.

[KrazyHorse]

And the guys who invent them like getting their research funded.

[Gangerolf]

I don't know if the Argentinians had a sub force. They probably didn't, considering the Brits never intended to use the depth charges anyway. From what I understand, taking them off the ships would delay the campaign too much.

[The Mad Monk]

Okay, let me get this straight...

Argentina is demanding an apololgy for something the Brits didn't use, while at war with them, twenty years after the fact?

Let me guess -- it's an election year there, right?

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
I don't know if the Argentinians had a sub force. They probably didn't, considering the Brits never intended to use the depth charges anyway. From what I understand, taking them off the ships would delay the campaign too much.

The Royal Navy were actually quite worried at the time about a couple of the Argentinian subs which were relatively modern european built vessels and much quieter than the Soviet subs the RN ships were designed to hunt.

Even so, it is pretty unlikely they would have used these weapons, they were really envisaged for use against Soviet missile subs in a conflict that had gone tactical nuclear anyway.

The Cabinet did IIRC fairly rapidly discard the option of nuking Buenos Aires with a Polaris missile after the war started.

[The diplomat]

I didn't know the nukes were depth charges. I thought they were warheads for like surface to surface missiles.

[TheStinger]

Absolutely ridiculuos.

Even if we hadn't tkane any with the task force we could have nuked downtown Buenes Aries any time with our ICBM's but did we? - no.

Christ the Ruskies used to fly there nuclear bombers right toward the UK every week did we complain no because and this is the point they didn't use or even threaten to use them.

Stupid defeated economic basket case idiots.