MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands’ conflict depicted in opera ‘Allies’ based on Pinochet-Thatcher relationship
The relationship between former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has been turned into an opera which opened in Paris for a five-night run. “Allies” revolves around a televised 1999 meeting of the two late leaders when Pinochet was being held under house arrest in Britain. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesOf course, had the Chileans not helped and Britain been defeated, they would have been next. Chile had no plans for aggressive war against her neighbours, unlike Argentina. The original Operation Soberania, Argentina's attack on Chile after losing an international arbitration over the Beagle Channel (run by the UK, oddly enough Argentina agreed to that despite a bogus claim over British territory) planned for 30,000 casualties, a massive regional war averted in 1978 by Papal intervention and in 1982 by the Naval Service, British Army and RAF. Argentinians should be grateful for the blessings of peace brought about by defeat in 1982, the Rule of Law might not be quite there, but democracy is. Just rejoice at that news!
Jun 17th, 2013 - 11:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0The rgs bang on about the Thatcher/ pinochet relationship,as if the UK somehow supported the criminal actions of the chillian regime, so using rg logic...therefore Thatcher n the British then must have been just as sick and so must we as a nation be now. We were alies with the soviets during ww2, Churchill met an appeared to get on like a House on fire with father joe... an stallin made pinochet look like a saint! It was just business... the buisiness of war winning.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 12:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What's the betting that' Allies' will deny that Argentina in 1982 was ruled by a genocidal fascist government that made Pinochet's regime look mild in comparison-it'll be the same, 'not peace loving Argentina's fault-everyone else is to blame.'
Jun 17th, 2013 - 01:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Perhaps there should be a film featuring Galtieri snuggling his Kirkpatrickpatch Doll as he goes out onto the terrace to meet the throngs of cheering crowds who hated him until he expanded his Dirty War onto the Islands at which point he was bodaciously awesome! (But then he let everyone down and suddenly it wasnt fun anymore.) Cold War realpolitik was a train wreck, doubly so when clients of west tried to see how far their “alliance” could be taken. Galtieri is the perfect example.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 01:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why?
Jun 17th, 2013 - 02:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nowhere does he say it is not a work of fiction.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 02:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's not forget the dancing, the banner and flag-waving, the cheering, the singing of crowds of argies who now deny that they were in any way responsible for the criminal invasion of the Falkland Islands. Argieland is, in fact, the “home” of over 41 million war criminals. With appropriate selectivity, what's wrong with the ancient Roman sanction. Decimation. Execute 1 in 10. If that doesn't work, do another 1 in 10.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 02:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Can not see it making a West End debut any time in the future. Maybe his people should talk to Andrew Loydd Webbers people, does Andrew do comedy?
Jun 17th, 2013 - 02:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ Conqueror: Didn't decimation involve forcing the soldiers to be decimated to kill each other until 1 in 10 were dead, rather than a 3rd party killing them?
Jun 17th, 2013 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And I can think of at least one Argentinean who is a decent person, Daniel Barenboim, the conductor. There surely must be a few others lurking.
@8
Jun 17th, 2013 - 03:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“does Andrew do comedy?”
Nah! but he does do ugly.......that's sort of funny!
@9
Jun 17th, 2013 - 04:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yep, the lowest unit of a Legion was an 8 man section called a Contubernium. Ten contubernium formed a Century. six Centuries formed a Cohort, ten Cohorts formed a legion along with smaller ancillary units such as Calvary and Artillary.
Each Contubernium drew a lot, the loser was then clubbed or stoned to death by the comrades he had fought and lived with. The leadership would be dealt with separately, usually by execution. Decimation could be awarded for acts of cowardice or desertion.
5 nights sounds about right...
Jun 17th, 2013 - 05:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@9 Not exactly. The principle of “decimation” was that the other members of a “maniple” would beat the selected soldier to death. But selection wasn't based either on a “maniple” or a ”contubernium. Just 1/10th of the legion. But here's an excellent idea. Draft in British troops to execute argie cowards. Now that British troops understand what argies did.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 05:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet, both are avowed genocidal.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 06:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Given the evidence, no need for testing.
It was thatcher that kidnapped the missing off the streets of Argentina.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 06:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It was Thatcher that had them taken to the Naval Technical school and tortured.
It was Thatcher who kept the pregnant women alive until they delivered their babies, then gave the babies away to her officers.
It was Thatcher we had them flow out over the water and thrown out alive into the sea.
Yeah, sure! Given the evidence, no need for testing.
Sounds like you have still not come to terms with the humiliation of being defeated by a women.
You must have thought by also electing a woman to run your country, you would have a leader of her calibre and look what you ended up with. Lol.
14 raul2
Jun 17th, 2013 - 07:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Why do you continue to spout this utter rubbish? Are you being paid for it? Do you even understand the implications of what comes out of your mouth or are just really as stupid as you seem?
Clue to the answers:
Cannot get a real job in The Dark Country;
YES;
NO and YES!
14 Raul
Jun 17th, 2013 - 07:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What “evidence”?
Is there a link showing Thatcher is “Genocidal”?
Your talking to it.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 07:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They have been looking for it for years.
It's him, the missing link!
I think I will give this one a miss unless it has some good tunes.
Jun 17th, 2013 - 07:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“”“It's him, the missing link!”“”
Jun 17th, 2013 - 10:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I doubt very many people are missing him one little bit.
@14
Jun 18th, 2013 - 02:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet, both are avowed genocidal.
Given the evidence, no need for testing.”
And Galteiri, was a peace activist who was a ballet dancer, right?
15 reality check
Jun 19th, 2013 - 04:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 021 Pete Bog
You two are hypocrites:
Everyone knows that the government of Margaret Thatcher, before 1982, Videla and Galtieri support in the implementation and application of state terrorism in Argentina and Latin American military regimes. That makes him an accomplice to genocide like the sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano outside the exclusion zone.
Do not forget that Margaret Thatcher, before 1982, sympathetically supported by Leopoldo Galtieri neoliberal economic plan that benefited corporations English at Argentina.
You have to have a memory, not to forget and stop being hypocrites.
Raul
Jun 19th, 2013 - 09:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You ARE funny :-)
Like the ship, Your example, the Belgrano, is full of holes.
1) Argentina attacked and occupied a British territory. They refused to leave when asked and a state of war existed.
2) Belgrano was weaving a zig zag evasive pattern ( must be Argentine) around the Islands to join the ARA in a two pronged attack on the RN
3) Belgrano Captain has acknowledged that the Belgrano was a 'Legitimate Target' for RN forces.
4) Belgrano was fully armed with missiles and had they detected the Conqueror, they would have expected to depth charge it in order to sink it.
5) The Exclusion Zone was for the benefit of commercial vessels unrelated to the conflict - any vessel in that zone could expect to be fired upon as a presumed enemy vessel.
ARA Military vessels outside of the EZ were NOT deemed to be 'friendly' benign pleasure boaters, but still every bit, “enemy combatants”, as a State of War existed. The Captain of the Belgrano was fully aware that he could be attacked at any time.
6) hypocritical for Argentina to say that the Belgrano should not be attacked, outside the EZ and without 'warning' (?), when an Argentine covert operation in Spain was exposed, gathering materials and making plans to sink a British warship at anchour in Gibraltar, thousands of miles from the conflict.
The Belgrano could have done great damage and taken many British lives. You were caught napping - get over it.
“Do not forget that Margaret Thatcher, before 1982, sympathetically supported by Leopoldo Galtieri neoliberal economic plan that benefited corporations English at Argentina”
Britain had profitable economic interests in Argentina and had done for a 100 years before Galtieri came to power, and still does.
Galtieri was nothing more than the enormously popular Argentine Government when they occupied British territory in 1982.
Why would the UK have economic investments in Argentina if they were NOT profitable ???
There, 2 'torpedoes' to your hypocritical arguments
#22
Jun 20th, 2013 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0That makes him an accomplice to genocide like the sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano outside the exclusion zone.
The Belgrano myth has been done to death in countless postings in these forums. Why don't you read the facts from your OWN NAVAL SOURCES before you keep peddling the same old mantra or are you people SO BRAINWASHED you don't even believe your own sources because the truth is too uncomfortable to bear. It MUST be someone else who is to blame !!!!
Listen you Argentina bastards, you don't have to like and respect a person who helps you bring down a bunch of thieving war like psychopaths. You just embrace him or her to get what you want. Are we British bothered about Pinochet and what he did. No you dopey dickheads we are not we would make a pact with the devil to bring down you bunch of thieving war psychopaths. Oh I forgot we did. Well fucking suck it up and live with it.
Jun 20th, 2013 - 03:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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