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Dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the status of the Falkland Islands

The Obama Administration Spits in the Face of Great Britain



On Friday, Philip J. Crowley, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, reaffirmed the Obama administration’s position that with respect to the dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the status of the Falkland Islands, the US stance is one of neutrality. He repeated Secretary of State Clinton’s offer to mediate the dispute.

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At a prior press conference, Crowley had responded to a reporter’s question about the Falklands by using the Argentine name for the islands, the Malvinas. By assuming a neutral stance, the Obama administration is doing more than recognizing that the Argentine claim to the islands may have some merit. It is lending credence to that claim. Great Britain’s claim to the Falklands dates to 1690, and the first British colony on the islands was established in 1765. The current dispute with Argentina began on January 2, 1833 when a British warship arrived at the one Argentine settlement on the islands, and ordered the withdrawal of all Argentine forces. On January 5, the Argentine commander lowered his flag and sailed away without firing a shot. With the exception of the brief period in 1982 when Argentine forces occupied the islands, Britain has exercised de jure sovereignty over the Falklands ever since. The 3,000 residents of the islands are almost exclusively from Britain or one of the English speaking British Commonwealth countries. Anyone who visits the Falklands, as I did recently, is bound to be impressed by how British the islanders are. Strolling down a street in Stanley, the only city on the islands is like walking down one of the country lanes in a small English village. None of the signs are in Spanish, and practically no one speaks Spanish. The Argentine claim to the islands is based on the notion that having been driven from the islands 178 years ago by a superior force in an undeclared war, Argentina is entitled to get the islands back. The impetus for asserting this claim is that there may be reserves of up to 60 billion barrels of oil below the ocean surrounding the islands. The fact that the islanders are British citizens, consider themselves British, and have no interest whatsoever in becoming a colony of Argentina, should in the view of the Argentine government have no bearing on the resolution of the dispute. Great Britain is America’s oldest, most loyal and most reliable ally. Instead of supporting Britain, the Obama administration has in adopting a neutral stance, in essence, sided with Argentina. On February 2, 1848, with General Winfield Scott’s army occupying Mexico City, the Mexican government was forced to sign the humiliating and one sided Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico ceded over 525,000 square miles of its territory to the United States. The states of California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming were wrested from Mexico by force of arms. If the Obama administration is so intent on righting past wrongs perhaps it should ask Britain to mediate the possible return of Mexico’s lost territories. After all, unlike the English speaking British in the Falklands, many of the residents of our southwest are Spanish speakers of Mexican descent. The Obama administration is busy reaching out to thuggish regimes while giving the back of its hand to America’s allies. President Obama has acknowledged that the US is a superpower, “like it or not.” He seems not to like it. From the end of the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet empire, the United States, under the leadership of Democrat and Republican presidents, kept the torch of freedom burning. We made our share of mistakes during those years, but no one ever questioned America’s commitment to self determination and individual liberty. We won the Cold War, not simply because we were the world’s most powerful nation economically and militarily, but because we stood on the moral high ground and could be relied upon to support our friends when they were in the right. Argentina and the rest of Latin America will rant and rage about the Falklands, but they won’t dare to challenge Britain militarily. What is far more important is America’s loss of credibility. In 1956, Mao Zedong called the United States a paper tiger, one that is seemingly powerful, but is in fact timid, indecisive and weak. We weren’t a paper tiger then, and we aren’t yet, but at the rate Obama is going, we will be by the time he leaves office.


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Al Kaltman -- Bio and Archives

Al Kaltman is a political science professor who teaches a leadership studies course at George Washington University.  He is the author of Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant.


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