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Originally Posted by trashcanman
Please stop all this nonsense talk of Argentinian indigenous, peace loving people being forced out of the Falklands by British colonists at gun point.
Maybe we can discuss the way that the indigenous people of what is now Argentina were brutally robbed of their country?
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well it's no nonsense, but as you said they were a bunch of saints either.
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Some of my family were born and bred on the Falklands and one of my cousins flew helicopters during the 1982 conflict.
Their general view is that prior to the invasion by Argentina in 1982 the Falkland Islanders had good relations with Argentina and the best way of persuading them to give up their British status was to build bridges and persuade them that their future would be better.
As we all know, in 1982 the Argentinian government was more likely to torture and murder people that disagreed with them.
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I understand why you feel so strongly about this topic now. I don't think many of us here believe that Argentina would have been better than the UK, it's a matter of making history here, and being under the control of a questionable regime is as bad as squatting into an archipelago and then claim it as yours because British live there. Self determination can't be applied because the settlers weren't natives. Imagine if the scenario was opposite: if there was more of an Argentinian presence on the islands, who do you reckon they would want to belong to? The population of the Falkland is the result of the occupation, so they bear a bit of a biased point of view, don't you think? And to be honest I don't blame them, but I'd be smarter and declare my independence altogether, and make the best of the "newly" found natural resources.
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Having enjoyed freedom for so many hundreds of years, it is easy for Britons to forget that many countries have only recently arrived at that place, often paid for in British blood.
Yesterday I stood and watched the coffins of 6 young men who died trying to bring freedom to Afghanistan as they were driven to their final resting place.
Due to our history, we are an easy nation to throw insults at, especially by “internet heroes” to coin a phrase. Call me jingoistic if you wish. I am proud of most of what my country has done.
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well this is another topic altogether, but as much as I am sorry for all those poor brave guys who fight in Afghanistan, it still remains that we're allowing our Governments to send young guys to die for no reason at all. This distorted idea of exporting democracy to certain foreign countries is terribly arrogant and doesn't even take into account history: if 10 years of Russian invasion didn't change Afghanistan one bit, we really expect to make much of a difference? In 5 years time we'll all be out of there and they'll be back to square one, you can't change thousands-year traditions and heritage with western democracy, it doesn't compute.