After President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced Argentina will complain to the UN over the “militarisation” of the South Atlantic, British newspaper The Telegraph published a controversial article bringing back to life the possibility of the “Argentine regime” sending a military taskforce to the Malvinas, and warning that if so happens, Argentines should expect another “national humiliation.”
In his column, “Cristina Kirchner's sabre-rattling will not dent British resolve over the Falkland islands”, Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator Nile Gardiner, who appears frequently on BBC, and US right-wing networks Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, compared the bully-type of behaviour shown by the military regime that ruled Argentina between 1976-1983 and decided to recover the Islands in 1982, with that of the Argentine Head of State
In what looked more like a propagandist article, and too far from the work of a journalist and/or foreign affairs analyst, the columnist indicated that the “regime” of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is behaving the same way the Junta did almost 30 years ago, and warned that Argentina will face another national humiliation it dares to sketch a military invasion.
“You can spot a bully a mile away. Full of bluster and hot air, they deflate swiftly when confronted and met with force. This is precisely what happened in 1982 to Argentina’s military junta after it decided to invade the Islands, and was defeated and brought to its knees by the British naval task force sent by Margaret Thatcher. It will happen again, if the regime in Buenos Aires tries to retake or cut off the islands, and Argentina will suffer another national humiliation, from which it will take decades to recover.”
“Cristina Kirchner is a quintessential bully, intimidating the media at home, while acting tough on the international stage. She has now set her sights on the 3,000 inhabitants of the Islands, over 90 percent of whom are British, and fewer than one percent Argentine.”
Sabre-rattling is used for describing a threatening behaviour which is intended to frighten someone, as well for the ostentatious display of military power with the implied threat that it might be used. Being that the definition, it is quite difficult to understand what sabre-rattling has the President engaged in, mostly after asking UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron to “give peace and dialogue a chance”, and emphasizing that "Britain better don't expect us to deal with this outside of politics or diplomacy. It is not going to happen. We have suffered too much.”
In the same tune, a communiqué released by the British Foreign Office remarked that the Islands sovereignty “is not negotiable under any circumstances, a message that Mrs Kirchner seems not to have grasped. She can plead all she likes at the United Nations, as she promised to do last night in her over-the-top speech in Buenos Aires, but it will not succeed in changing Britain’s principled position on the matter.”
Likewise, Gardiner who sees acts of provocation in every word of Fernández de Kirchner, also found “an air of desperation” about the President’s declarations made last night.
“The speech were the words of a fading diva, used to getting her way domestically, but a lightweight on the world stage. Mrs Kirchner should be concentrating on getting her own affairs in order, instead of threatening the sovereignty and livelihoods of thousands of British citizens hundreds of miles off the coast of Argentina.”
Mileage was also part of last night's speech as Fernández de Kirchner remembered once more that it's hard to understand how someone can claim soverreignty over a piece of land that's almost 7,941 miles or 12,780 kilometres away from London, and just a "hundreds of miles off the coast of Argentina."
Furthermore, the article portraits Argentina as a nation "that is rapidly losing both its political and economic freedom under her (Fernández de Kirchner) stewardship with a sharp turn to the Left. What should be a success story in the region is becoming a cautionary tale, where press freedom and judicial independence have come under fire.”
“Argentina is on a slippery slope to becoming another Latin American failure, and the image of masked thugs roaming the streets of Buenos Aires looking for British businesses to attack is a sad symbol of a decaying regime.”
"It should come as no surprise that a president who cares little for the liberty of her own people also seeks to take away the freedoms of the people of the Islands, restored through the sacrifice of 255 British servicemen three decades ago. She will swiftly find however that her sabre-rattling in the South Atlantic will fail to make a dent in British resolve, and if pursued to their conclusion will result in her downfall.”
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