Chile Forum

patagoniax wrote:

Afterburner wrote: Countries that unilaterally attempt to conduct a war over a territorial dispute when a binding judgement of an international court has come down against them are not treated with a great deal of respect.

As comrade Mousey Dung might once have said, respect grows not out of the running-dog judgment of a vacuous bourgeois capitalist court determination, but instead in a parable-like sense, out of the barrel of a medium-calibre centrefire rifle.

Just perused my little 'red book' but didn't find any reference to a like parable.

john wrote:
Just perused my little 'red book' but didn't find any reference to a like parable.

You should be ashamed of your leftist self, camarada.

"Problems of War and Strategy" (November 6, 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224. "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

Probably one of Mousey Dung's most famous quotes. The context is less well known: it dealt with the armed resistance of the Chinese to the Japanese occupation during the 1930s, and particularly the guerrilla warfare which Mao espoused. Those efforts brought brutal reprisals and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Chinese. Nevertheless, Mao believed that the guerrilla war was essential not just as symbolic in the liberation of the country (it ultimately had very little impact other than to divert troops) but as a way of forging a communist party solidarity and identity.

patagoniax wrote:

john wrote:
Just perused my little 'red book' but didn't find any reference to a like parable.

You should be ashamed of your leftist self, camarada.

"Problems of War and Strategy" (November 6, 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224. "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

Probably one of Mousey Dung's most famous quotes. The context is less well known: it dealt with the armed resistance of the Chinese to the Japanese occupation during the 1930s, and particularly the guerrilla warfare which Mao espoused. Those efforts brought brutal reprisals and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Chinese. Nevertheless, Mao believed that the guerrilla war was essential not just as symbolic in the liberation of the country (it ultimately had very little impact other than to divert troops) but as a way of forging a communist party solidarity and identity.

Yeh, the Party is probably slowly removing many of the old chestnuts from the little red book, don’t want to give the dissenters any ideas these days.

Afterburner wrote:

No, every year they laugh at the usual grandstanding of the Argentinian government while nominally offering support.

Unfortunately, while the grandstanding is true, the "nominally" part is not. Chile has been regrettably cutting ties with the Falklands and here is one of the more recent of such moves:

Until 2010 Chile was sending a regular ship from Punta Arenas with food, building materials, and heating gas. That was halted at Argentina's request (and the implicit and perhaps explicit threat of shutting down Chile's receipt of natural gas from Argentina). Similar economic threats are believed to be behind Chile's recent announcement of the cancellation of flights from Chile to the Falklands. The effective blockading of the islands is far from a "nominal" impediment but instead will create a significant economic burden.

Article: Chilenos en Malvinas temen perder último nexo con el país ante eventual suspensión de vuelos

http://diario.elmercurio.com/2012/01/29 ... 01.htm?id={9B90AB0A-B248-49F0-9E9F-4CB371A25901}

If they are cancelling any flights, then the Argies are shooting themselves in the foot, specially this year.

With the anniversary of the war, it is expected that lots of argentinian families would want to go the the Falklands to visit the graves of their loved ones (Argentina refused to collect the bodies).

Removing the one flight to the Falklands means any family wanting to go there would have to fly to England and take the military flight back down again.

bambi851 wrote:If they are cancelling any flights, then the Argies are shooting themselves in the foot,

They have a well demonstrated knack for that.

Orgullosamente nos disparamos en los pies is the current national motto for Argentina.

It seems mainly a grammatical point. Rather than "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" the signs should read "Ojalá que Las Malvinas fueran Argentinas" or "Esperamos un día que Las Malvinas serán Argentinas."

I have been to the Falkland Islands. The only thing not British there is all the Chileans working in the service industry. And the strange little gallery museums everywhere with the obligatory empty can of "albondigas" which came from Argentina, and must have been issued as rations.

bearshapedsphere wrote: The only thing not British there is all the Chileans working in the service industry.

There are also a number of Argentines working there, and they all seem to get on nicely. There are only a few dozen Argie residents, and about the same number of Germans, both outnumbered by the 300 or so chileans there. Also a bunch of Kiwis live and work there.

The British have sent a nuclear submarine to "protect the islands":

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/navy-sends-sub ... 28454.html

Afterburner wrote:The British have sent a nuclear submarine to "protect the islands":

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/navy-sends-sub ... 28454.html

A sub a Cruiser and a Prince, well Willy is a SAR pilot, it would be a different story if they sent Harry (the fighting Prince) down instead of to Afghanistan.

nwdiver wrote:

Afterburner wrote:The British have sent a nuclear submarine to "protect the islands":

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/navy-sends-sub ... 28454.html

A sub a Cruiser and a Prince, well Willy is a SAR pilot, it would be a different store if they sent Harry (the fighting Prince) down instead of to Afghanistan.

That nuclear submarine is also quite capable of sending cruise missiles with conventional payloads into the revetments (with stellar CEP) - where the Argies keep what remains of their Air Force. Or, if the rules of engagement so require, there are now UK shipboard systems capable of taking out multiple Argie fast-movers just a few seconds after they become airborne, even if they might wish to fly NOE . That is, the aircraft that they have not put on pedestals above piles of rubble to celebrate their having lost the war.






And let's not forget that during the 1982 Falklands war, Prince Andrew was a pilot with the invasion fleet and flew a helo as part of a decoy action to distract the Argie Exocet missiles. The concept was that the centre-of-mass fire-control calculation done by the Exocet could be spoofed by modifying the radar signature of a targeted ship. The Exocet processing was a bit primitive in that it could not exclude HRM (helicopter rotor modulation) returns from the region of a target. Thus one or more helos could be flown a short distance from the targeted ship and cause the Exocet to calculate an erroneous solution. There must surely have been a pucker factor sitting out there in a princely hover while somebody was shooting a fast-mover into your neighbourhood.

Just history. Almost nothing to do with Chile.

Slightly off topic but I hear there has been an ice collapse on the Perito Merino glacier in Argentina and in the comments below the video (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9120631/Argentinas-Perito-Moreno-glacier-collapses.html) someone has written "the disgrace is that Mrs. Kirchner and her inner circle control most of the hotels and inns around the glacier.".
I don't know how true that is but the old smoke/fire saying may apply and the video is interesting.
Baz