Margaret Thatcher is dead.

[Hauldren Collider]

Seriously? The only chance the ****ing military government had of 'winning' the war was for the UK not bothering to show up (that or the US supporting us, like some crazy whackos in the junta believed).

Did they think that we would follow the Monroe Doctrine? Because unless I understand it incorrectly, that would compel us to retake the falklands ourselves, not help you fight off the British.

[The Mad Monk]

Much less so if you consider gerrymandering.

JM

Really? Winner-takes-all doesn't trump something that doesn't impact the entire country?

[N35t0r]

Did they think that we would follow the Monroe Doctrine? Because unless I understand it incorrectly, that would compel us to retake the falklands ourselves, not help you fight off the British.

Nope, mostly that your government had been heavily supportive of the junta.

[Ben Kenobi]

Gay marriage is a done deal here. Deal with it.

So's the Conservative party.

I'm here all day folks.

[Tupac Shakur]

Did they think that we would follow the Monroe Doctrine? Because unless I understand it incorrectly, that would compel us to retake the falklands ourselves, not help you fight off the British.

No. The Monroe Doctrine was first declared in 1823 and stated that "further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention." Argentina isn't a European state, so the Monroe Doctrine would not have compelled the US to take back the Malvinas in 1982.

Informed readers will note that the British stole the Malvinas from Argentina in 1833, ten years after the Monroe Doctrine was declared. While this was a pretty clear violation of the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, the US was reliant upon British naval might to actually enforce the Monroe Doctrine against the other European powers, so Washington looked the other way while Britain expanded its empire in the New World (not just in the Falklands, but also in Belize and Guyana).

[Alexander's Horse]

here we go again...

[Alexander's Horse]

Seriously? The only chance the ****ing military government had of 'winning' the war was for the UK not bothering to show up (that or the US supporting us, like some crazy whackos in the junta believed).

the argie airforce scored a number of hits on ships in the taskforce with 500lb bombs but they set their fuses wrong and the bombs didn't go off

If they had the landing would have been a disaster, probably defeated in fact. Thatcher would not have survived.

[Tupac Shakur]

here we go again...

I don't know why simple historical facts distress you so much.

[Alexander's Horse]

they don't distress me lol, *thread jack in progress*

[N35t0r]

the argie airforce scored a number of hits on ships in the taskforce with 500lb bombs but they set their fuses wrong and the bombs didn't go off

If they had the landing would have been a disaster, probably defeated in fact. Thatcher would not have survived.

They were probably malfunctioning, rather than incorrectly set. In any case, unless we had managed to sink something of enough value to convince you to give up, we were doomed.

[Alexander's Horse]

look, go and look it up yourself, a staggering total of 13 bombs hit British ships at the Bluff Cove landing but failed to explode, the fuses were incorrectly set

[regexcellent]

They didn't explode because the planes were flying too low because if they flew any higher they would be shot down by British ADA.

If they had exploded I suspect we would have come to the aid of the British.

[Alexander's Horse]

that's right, although I think the US would have brokered a negotiated settlement, with the Argies probably keeping the islands ad interim, and thus Thatcher would fall

[Myrddin]

the argie airforce scored a number of hits on ships in the taskforce with 500lb bombs but they set their fuses wrong and the bombs didn't go off

If they had the landing would have been a disaster, probably defeated in fact. Thatcher would not have survived.

Except that once the troops were ashore the Argentinians would have lost, almost irrespective of how many frigates were sunk.

[Tupac Shakur]

AH is right. The Argies came perilously close to destroying enough of the landing force's stores and equipment to make the later yomp to Stanley impossible.

Lord Craig, the retired Marshal of the Royal Air Force, is said to have remarked: "Six better fuses and we would have lost".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Carlos_%281982%29