Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Why is Obama siding with Argentina over the Falkland Islands?

I'm married to an Argentine, we lived in Argentina for four years in the late 1970s, and I've followed Argentina closely ever since. As a citizen of the U.S. and as a fierce critic of Argentina's Kirchner administration—and most of the many failed Argentine administrations during my lifetime—it's quite disheartening, to say the least, to learn that the Obama administration is taking the side of Argentina against the U.K. in the issue of the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. Nile Gardiner of The Telegraph sums it up:

President Obama was effusive in his praise for the Special Relationship when he visited London recently, but his administration continues to slap Britain in the face over the highly sensitive Falklands issue. Washington signed on to a “draft declaration on the question of the Malvinas Islands” passed by unanimous consent by the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) at its meeting in San Salvador yesterday, an issue which had been heavily pushed by Argentina. In doing so, the United States sided not only with Buenos Aires, but also with a number of anti-American regimes including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua.
The declaration calls for Argentina and Great Britain to enter into negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, a position which London has long viewed as completely unacceptable. It also comes in the wake of increasing aggression by the Kirchner regime in the past 18 months, including threats to blockade British shipping in the South Atlantic.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear in a joint press conference with Cristina Kirchner in Buenos Aires in March 2010 that the Obama administration fully backs Argentina’s calls for negotiations over the Falkands, handing her Argentine counterpart a significant propaganda coup. The State Department has also insultingly referred to the Islands in the past as the Malvinas, the Argentine name for them.
It is hugely disappointing that the Obama administration has chosen once again to side not only with the increasingly authoritarian regime in Argentina, but also with an array of despots in Latin America against British interests.

Regrettably, the U.S. has long neglected its friends and neighbors to the south, but this is not the time, nor the issue, to start getting chummy. The only reason Argentina is interested in the Falklands is for its potentially huge oil reserves. The people who live on the islands have been Brits for their entire lives and would be crazy to prefer the rule of the corrupt, despotic, and thieving Argentine government.

11 comments:

sgt.red.blue.red said...

Does Argentina have an extradition treaty with the U.S.?

W.E. Heasley said...

Winston Churchill’s bust wasn’t befitting the Obama White House. Hence returned to the British shortly after Obama occupied the White House. That states volumes.

Cabodog said...

Only seventeen more months of this nonsense.

This editorial helps explains Obama's actions: http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/obama-s-agenda--overwhelm-the-system-95716764.html

Bill said...

Cabodog,

I hope you're right but I'm afraid the Republicans don't have a viable candidate to beat him. I also think it will all depend on whether the economy picks up. If he can quote Reagan and say "you're better off now than you were four years ago," he wins.

Hans said...

Good one Sgt!

Bill, you are dead wrong, BO, is as good as gone..

The President, as a Muslim, will support any and all nations that are anti-west...

Then again, perhaps he likes to support the underdog...

William said...

W.E. Heasley:

True, the bust of Winston Churchill was loaned to George W. Bush from the British Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks for four years. And true President Obama elected not to keep it when it was offered to him for another four years. Lets not forget that after WW II the British electorate soundly rejected Churchill and the Conservatives in 1945. It would be a long 6 years before he was briefly returned to power in 1951.

BESIDES, what is so wrong with replacing the bust of Churchill with a bust of the American President Abraham Lincoln ??

Can't we get past these narrow minded attacks on the President of the USA? I mean REALLY !!

William said...

Hans -

Please display your ignorance on some other blog. Neither President Obama nor his mother were ever Muslims. There is absolutely nothing in President Obama's actions which indicate that he is anti-west.

Have you not noticed how well President Obama was received in Great Britain and Europe? Did you read or hear any comment coming from those countries' officials that he is anti-west?

This anti-west rhetoric comes only from the misinformed right wing in the USA. It has nothing to do with reality.

Public Library said...

"The only reason Argentina is interested in the Falklands is for its potentially huge oil reserves."

Not sure you realized the irony in your statement. The entire world is engaged in a war for oil reserves and has been for 100 years.

The US is numero uno in the fight. Probably the reason for the chumminess. This is consistent with every US president left/right to embrace the military industrial complex.

Bill said...

Obama has a reflexive antagonism to traditional American values and allies. This has become painfully obvious to all but the most willfully ignorant observers (including apparently our friend William). Witness the bowing and scraping before foreign potentates who rule unfree nations while spurning our traditional allies on the issues that count.

William said...

OK, Bill - Nice rhetoric.

"Witness the bowing and scraping before foreign potentates who rule unfree nations while spurning our traditional allies on the issues that count."

Now please give examples of "spurning our traditional allies over serious matter" - not just right wing's propaganda but real examples where our traditional allies have complained.

And please don't mention Israel - they are no one's ally. They are only out for themselves. We have saved their a__; when have they saved our? They have done nothing for the USA!

Bill said...

Short list of friendly nations spurned by Obama:

1. Britain
2. Israel
3. South Korea
4. Panama
5. Colombia