I've been following this thread and keep asking myself if any of you have ever studied history. Has anyone here actually got a qualification in history? Or do you just make it up as you go along?

Paul,

I struggle to understand you. First you say the sinking of the Belgrano was a political decision with no military significance, then link to an article that proves the opposite.

You would like us to believe that an Argentinian battle group moving in and out of the exclusion zone was no threat to the British battle group? That the Argentinian navy was effectively confined to port for the remainder of the conflict was for political reasons?

Puleez!

Wobbles.

"Thatcher saved & rebuilt a country, not destroyed a country & sent it broke".

Actually the facts do back it up.

"Margaret Thatcher said this: Pennies don't fall from heaven. They have to be earned here on Earth. That was a good summary of a conservative philosophy that would see Thatcher lead her country through its most dramatic economic and social changes in generations. Her Thatcherite revolution is credited with laying the groundwork for Britain's economic revival in the 1980s."

Look! its Mr Opinion,the Albert Einstein of our generation.
And here he is, hopefully one day we mere mortals may be half as smart as our fellow poster.
click the link below to catch a happy snap of Mr O enjoying his 21st birthday.
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/3742030-1x1-940x940.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-23/albert-einstein-sticks-out-his-tongue-at-photographers/3847552&h=940&w=940&sz=177&tbnid=5N2zuGTyKGYa8M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=93&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalbert%2Beinstein%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=albert+einstein&usg=__AT-KtHHiLpovQBY9u5nJd-MzPoE=&docid=SVt3s06TKiBbWM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uSlnUeaaHsvCkQXamICQCA&sqi=2&ved=0CIwBEP4dMAw

Mr opinion why? what is your point.
Paul while sharing my thoughts about the vinegary old girl, does so for different reasons.
Old girl actually did very well in that war and in sinking that ship.
Poor old lefty/communist Paul is unaware how many British ships sunk.
And the totally evil right wing lunatics who even stole children and dropped such as Paul from air planes out at sea.

csteele,

You seem to think that wars are fought based on your imagined rules, you pick away at stuff from Wikipedia and use it to sustain your case that the British in general and Maggie Thatcher specifically were in some way guilty of offending the rules you imagine.

I’m trying to demonstrate that the basis for your claims is simply wrong, but I doubt you care much about being wrong when you have a link that tells you that the British didn’t use a particular weapons system because it was “unreliable”. But I guess it helps your case to believe this rubbish.

The Argentine naval units were all ordered all to seek out the British task force around the Falklands and attack the following day. The Belgrano was to the north and ordered south. The signal was intercepted by British Intelligence and the defence tactics were changed immediately to protect the British fleet.

Some reports suggest that the Belgrano was the biggest threat to the British fleet, it wasn’t. The real threat was from three Exocet missile armed frigates. Actually they were not Exocet at all, they were Gabrielle missiles, bought from the French and modified for longer range by the South Africans.

From the link provided by Paul1405;

“But Argentine naval chiefs have subsequently revealed that the cruiser was indeed part of an operation that did threaten the task force. It had pursued a jagged path, weaving in and out of the exclusion zone, but in any case both sides regarded the entire South Atlantic as an operational theatre”.

Of the total losses about 270 were killed in the aft sections from the second torpedo strike, thanks to the US and British satellite tracking, the Argentine escorts were directed back to the Belgrano and abandon ship losses were about 50. A remarkable maritime rescue from a capital ship with well over 1,000 compliment. No thanks to the “Argies” though.

A couple of clicks of the mouse and the world appears exactly how you want it hey?

Dear Belly,

I agree with you that Thatcher did a good thing in ridding Argentina of the generals who were running a terrorist state. However, disagreeing as Paul did does not make him a communist.