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What if: The Day Argentina Retook the Falklands
The date is July 27, 2012, and in London the Olympic Games are about to begin. For months, the British people have been looking forward to the jamboree of patriotic enthusiasm.But now that the day is here, the mood feels heavy with gloom. The crowds are thin, the drizzle pours down. The Union Flags hang forlornly in the dull breeze. Even the nation's new Prime Minister, the blinking, stammering Ed Miliband, cuts a remarkably limp figure, a melancholy leader for a nation sunk in misery. Several thousand miles away, across the cold seas of the South Atlantic, the atmosphere could hardly be more different. For in the capital of the Islas Malvinas, the archipelago formerly known as the Falkland Islands, an Argentine victory parade is underway. Though victory in the Second Falklands War was secured only a few weeks ago, the islands' conquerors have already been busy. At the tiny airport that serves Puerto Argentino formerly Port Stanley a gigantic mural commemorates the soldiers from the mainland who lost their lives. Beside the old Anglican cathedral, draped with a massive blue-and-white flag, the statue of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gazes impassively out to sea. For the Iron Lady, as her adoring country-men call her, the war was a turning point, securing her place in South American history for all time. But for Britain, battered by months of economic austerity, it was a tempest that swept away the Coalition government and destroyed any lingering illusions that the United Kingdom was still a serious power. As the Argentine troops parade triumphantly down Avenida Leopoldo Galtieri, a few miserable islanders stand and watch. Many have already booked their flights back to Britain, sick of the Spanish road signs and posters of Diego Maradona. Posted by: Beavis 2011-12-24 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=335872 |