Argentinians? Suicide attacks? Oh, please.......The Argentinian pilots were very brave, albeit mostly inept, during the conflict. They were not however, suicidal.
Secrets come to light on the English attack the cruiser General Belgrano.
A war cabinet chaired by Margaret Thatcher decided to attack "any ship, submarine and Argentina slave ship" that was judged a danger to the Task Force (Operations), "no matter where you find it." Later an extension of English training rules, was applied to the cruiser General Belgrano after the decision of Thatcher and a small group of officials and politicians. They were meeting, May 2 at lunchtime, at Chequers, the weekend residence of the Prime Minister, and it was there that the decision to attack the Argentine ship.
Deshacer cambios
In late 2011, David Thorp, a former military intelligence officer who led the signals intercept team aboard HMS Intrepid, released the book The Silent Listener detailing the role of intelligence in the Falklands War. The book revealed that despite the fact that the Belgrano was observed by the Conqueror sailing away from the Falklands at the time of the attack, it had actually been ordered to proceed to a rendezvous point within the Exclusion Zone, to engage in a pincer attack. A report prepared by Thorp for Thatcher several months after the incident stated the destination of the vessel was not to her home port as the Argentine Junta stated; the report was not released because the Prime Minister did not want to compromise British signals intelligence capabilities
I also agree that war is war, the Belgrano was a legitimate military target, it does not matter where it was.
BUT in my opinion the British wanted to shock the Argentine position, weaken their combat moral and public support for the war. The Belgrano, an obsolete rusting ship overloaded with kids, was the perfect target. An easy one. All the explanations that followed, the alleged danger posed by the Belgrano to the British fleet, the attack it was preparing, etc. are WAY exaggerated in order to justify the carnage. This justifications were important as Thatcher did not want protests at home/abroad (surely fearing Vietnam-war-style protests), eventually losing the support of its allies and the public opinion in the Western countries. She had to convince everyone it was an heroic act and not a cold-blooded execution.
"Legitimate"? Yes. Moral? In no way.
Admiral Enrique Molina Pico, head of the Argentine Navy in the 1990s, wrote to La Nación in 2005 that the Belgrano was part of an operation that posed a real threat to the British task force, but was holding off for tactical reasons. Pico added that "To leave the exclusion zone was not to leave the combat zone to enter a protected area"
Inept???? First time I read something like that. Not even the British media -as far as I know- has named them inept. On which facts do you base this opinion?
"Legitimate"? Yes. Moral? In no way.
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