Chapter 1574: You Can’t Rob It If You Don’t Give It To Me

The whole of Argentina was immersed in the sea of joy of recovering its inherent territory and raising our country’s prestige, which was far more intoxicating to the Argentineans than the joyous news of winning the World Cup that time four years ago.

The economic downturn and the lack of livelihood were covered by this huge shot of stimulant, and the opposition of the Caltri disappeared in a flash, and the people who cursed the military government to hell at one moment sang praises for its wisdom and boldness at the present time.

This is completely different from the other country in question, and probably the only person in the whole of Britain who is applauding for Caltieri right now is Alan Wilson himself.

As for Margaret Thatcher, she had to go to a meeting in the House of Commons and didn’t have time to act like Alan Wilson was getting what he wanted, applauding Argentina for taking a crucial step, and that Britain’s long indulgence was finally paying off.

The reason for this is that the Falklands have been a long time coming, and Argentina didn’t suddenly arrive in 1982 and just hold back all at once, Argentina had been testing Britain with military force for seven years, since February 1976, when Argentine warships opened fire on British research vessels near the waters of Port Stanley, and Britain responded by sending in Royal Navy frigates to escort them.

In March, Argentina sent troops to occupy the South Orkney Islands, which were under British effective control, and Britain responded with diplomatic protests and domestic secrecy. The following year, Argentina cut off the oil supply to Port Stanley, and Britain responded by sending a submarine to the siege and keeping it a secret at home.

In the second half of 1977, when the Argentine navy began asserting its enforcement rights in the waters of the Isle of Man, seizing a wave of third-country fishing boats, the British response was to continue to send a submarine to watch and to keep it a secret at home.

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher had come to power, and Argentina’s national oil company blatantly engaged in a tender for an offshore oil project in the waters of the Isle of Man, which was won by the Soviet Union. The Argentine Foreign Ministry sent an ultimatum to the UK through official channels, stating that the issue of sovereignty over the Isle of Man could not continue to be delayed, and the UK responded by not reacting, and by the way, transferring the island’s only warship back to the mainland.

After such a long time Britain’s playing dead, Caltieri inside the situation, that you can recover the inherent territory is also understandable, the United Kingdom is acquiescing to Argentina’s move well.

But this time it’s different, the entire House of Commons was abuzz with voices, MPs fierce table round the Falkland Islands issue, as the incumbent Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher certainly endured the dynastic attack.

It is believed that the current government has an inescapable responsibility for the problem of the Falkland Islands to evolve into what it is now.

This is of course a slur, as if the Argentine military junta had begun testing Britain with armed demonstrations as early as 1976, a time before Caltieri came to power. Similarly Britain’s long period of permissiveness was not of Margaret Thatcher’s own making, again involving a different Prime Minister, and it makes no sense to bash Margaret Thatcher in this way.

Long debate, mutual accusations by occupying the mainstream, the Labor Party wants to give the Conservative Party a hard time is certain, but for a 10,000 kilometers away from the island to go to war, but also need to discuss in the discussion.

The result of the discussion was that all parties soon came up with a unanimous view, and MPs were furious, screaming that there was “no choice” but to send troops to the Falkland Islands, and even the leader of the opposition Labor Party and MPs were also furious and demanded that the Arabs should be driven out of the Falkland Islands. There was a rare unanimity in the British Parliament.

At the same time, opposition parties demanded that the Thatcher government be held accountable. There was no calm within the ruling party either, with backbenchers using the Foreign Secretary as an object of criticism and a target of attack.

But the day’s debate did not come up with a resolution to go to war, and it was clear that Mrs. Thatcher would still have to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the matter, and unlike the national jubilation on the Argentine side, the Falkland Islands were not as good as a soccer match in the eyes of British citizens. The mobilization of public opinion has not yet begun, and Britain still looks like a country of the ages.

“Margaret, it’s come to this, can’t you remain patient.” Alan Wilson came to 10 Downing Street to meet Margaret Thatcher, who had suffered a day of accusations, and brought out a document with two items, a document about conscription in Nepal, and a notification of the build-up of armed forces in the Rhodesian Crown Dependencies.

This is certainly not all, as Britain’s most important overseas territory, Malaya is certainly impossible to be ignored, but Malaya is too big a target, wait until the House of Commons to take out a specific decision, to be able to make Malaya move, now is not the time.

Rhodesia is a place with a very strong military color, those Slavic immigrants are themselves defeated people who fled Europe by fluke, Rhodesia is also landlocked, and there are black countries in all directions, and the tradition of arming has been preserved, and if you want to conscript, you can do it right away.

Does not Grace take care of his son-in-law, to know that Alan Wilson is hard against the interference of the richest woman, has called Colonel Albert back, which the richest woman can not persuade him, just waiting for the end of this war, logically become a general.

As for the Kingdom of Nepal, the locals, as an overseas regiment on which Britain relies heavily, also retained a conscription agency in Kathmandu after the independence of British India, which was used to serve Britain.

These two places usually no one cares, can be first military mobilization, can be privately through the agency to make the local ready, waiting for an order from London to start immediately.

Without expressing a resolution to go to war in the House of Commons for the moment, Mrs. Thatcher took the initiative and asked, “So what do we do now?”

“Let the Americans exercise a little diplomatic influence first.” Alan Wilson said in a tone of certainty, “There has to be time for Washington to run for peace, otherwise it is detrimental to the special Anglo-American relationship.”

The United States must still have a limit to stand on the side of Britain, because Britain’s move to drop bombs in the Americas helps the United States to raise interest rates to harvest Latin America, not to target Argentina, that is definitely a misunderstanding, it is the whole of the countries in the Americas, are within the scope of the United States to harvest the Americas, the Americas is ninety-five percent of the settlement of the U.S. dollar.

The situation of the entire Latin American countries is much the same, Argentina in which is not prominent, Brazil as the world’s third largest debtor, the country’s total debt of ninety billion U.S. dollars. Also facing the depletion of foreign exchange reserves but carrying huge debts and Mexico and other countries, Alan Wilson believes that the United States are now ready to restructure the debt of these countries.

It is nothing more than that, the old debt of Latin American countries due a sum of money, the creditor immediately to the country to provide a new loan for the repayment of the old debt, that is, in fact, the debt is delayed indefinitely, in exchange for the Latin American countries must interrupt the original economic program, cut spending, reduce deficits, these measures, although alleviating the debt problem on the books, but destroyed the economic environment of these countries, resulting in a huge amount of capital outflows into the creditor countries.

The destruction of the economic environment has led to further deterioration of the financial environment of these countries, and once again they are unable to repay the next batch of mature debts, so they can only follow the old practice of borrowing new loans to repay old ones, and so on and so forth, which ultimately forms an infinite vicious circle of debt crisis-capital outflow-economic crisis-financial crisis-debt crisis.

The result of the discussion was to hold the line for the time being, and Mrs. Thatcher immediately called U.S. President Reagan and Secretary of State Haig, asking them to use their good offices to exert influence on General Galtieri, the chairman of the ruling council of the Arab nation.

This would only leave General Galtieri high and dry in the belief that Britain would not react drastically, so General Galtieri took the not so difficult decision to inspect the Argentine mouthpiece of the Isle of Man in the guise of a national hero, renewing this successful national hero experience for two successful days.

But during those two days, Kathmandu, the capital of the Kingdom of Nepal, was awash with British conscription offices, not that the conscription season British conscription drew young Nepali men flocking to serve as soldiers to support their families.

And in Rhodesia, more than 5,000 young adults were successfully assembled, which all signaled that Britain will never let it go, just expect Argentina, a Latin American country, to notice the action in this regard is indeed strong.

After two days of criticism, Margaret Thatcher finally came to the House of Commons with the Cabinet Secretary, a staunch supporter behind her, to discuss the Falkland Islands issue with the parties, and this time the female prime minister came prepared for the accusations of the opposition parties without the passivity of two days ago, and immediately said that she would make a firm response.

At a crucial point in the debate, Alan Wilson spoke up in defense of Margaret Thatcher’s administration, “It was a difficult decision from an international point of view. The Argentines may have had their own reasons, but many countries have always had a hatred of the idea that if Britain leaves, the land is rightfully yours. We won’t get into the rights and wrongs of that idea, but shouldn’t we at least do it in a way that doesn’t trample Britain’s dignity on the ground? Now this is no longer a matter of mere territorial dispute; British citizens have dignity too.”

“What Britain gives you is yours, you can’t rob it if Britain doesn’t give it to you!” Alan Wilson faced more than six hundred parliamentarians and issued a threat in a loud voice, “Argentina should immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the Falkland Islands, the trial of the relevant people who made the dangerous and risky decisions, and the Argentinean side must respond within eight hours, that’s it.”

The people involved in making dangerously risky decisions, of course, refers to Galtieri himself, and it seems a bit much to put the head of Argentina in jail before the war has even started.

But that was exactly the purpose, the principle of the US just entering the war and wanting the Axis to surrender unconditionally was the same, the US was galvanizing the Axis into a bloody war with Britain, the Soviet Union and others.

Britain’s purpose now is to block Caltieri’s back road, so that Caltieri no matter how to choose can not avoid prison, rather than so firm as a national hero.

The House of Commons voted to form a task force in response to Argentina’s insolent occupation of British overseas possessions, and after a consensus in the House of Commons to strike back firmly, Foreign Secretary Carrington resigned as a scapegoat for failing to respond to the occupation of the Falklands this time around, followed by Secretary of State Humphrey, the Chancellor of the Seal, and Richard Luce, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who hung up their shirts and departed in quick succession.

Margaret Thatcher, looking on the brink of a crisis, carried out her third cabinet reshuffle since becoming prime minister, and is also a member of the current wartime cabinet.