should margaret thatcher now be arrested and stand trial for war crimes?

Question

i know she cant wipe her own behind now but she did order the sinking of the belgrano with a substancial loss of life and all for political gain

I know i will get a backlash for this question, Because saint margaret is held in such high esteme and did no wrong. Next you will be defending the police for their cowardly shooting of the brazilian on the tube, O it was his fault,mmm. If the argies had sunk a british ship in that same situ would you still feel the same i doubt it

Answer 1

The bastard should be sentenced to death without any trial,since her crimes are well known anyway.She should be given a long,slow,painful death,which I would happily oversee and take delight in,in the hope that my own children may never have to enter the job market similar to that which she gave the ordinary working man.And,yes,I'm biased,almost to the point of being biggoted.

Answer 2

Margaret Thatcher should stand trial for more than just war crimes, but the sinking of the Belgrano was justified since it was a threat to our forces. After all, the Argentines started the war, so the Belgrano was fair game.

Answer 3

I am not fan of Margaret Thatcher. She was and is an obnoxious and arrogant woman in love with herself but she was necessary sometimes to fight fire with fire.

I am a pacifist to the extent that I don't believe that we or any other country should attack another. I do believe in self defence though and when Argentinia attacked British territory then we were at war. The Belgrano was a battleship, staffed with armed forces capable of inflicting more casualties on British personel in addition to the death toll caused by the occupation.

The fact that the Belgrano happened to be on course away from Argentinia has nothing at all to do with it. The Falklands were not on any course to anywhere when they were attacked by armed forces from Argentinia.

If armies are at war the defending party does not have to politely wait until the enemy is facing in the right direction and preparing to open fire before they become a legitimate target.

Grow up. If British territory is unlawfully attacked then the attackers have to be banished and punished or otherwise any British territory would be available for anyone to steal and residents in British territory would be in constant fear and danger..

Answer 4

The statue of limitations has passed on that offence and it would be of little point to anyone to make her stand trial now and anyway you would also have to make General Woodward stand trial also as he gave the order to fire the torpedo's and the choice was ultimately his. To the same extend even though there is controversy as to where the British nuclear submarine was at the time it could still be debated that if the Belgrano had been allowed to carry on its out-flanking move of the British fleet it could possibly been able to take out the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and its escorts.

Answer 5

Thank you for finally admitting that England (as in any other country) not always the right thing is done. I think in the case of the Brazilian guy not enough was said (I am not Brazilian, but I hated the way the whole thing was handled and later cover up - let's not talk about it and it'll go away), I feel that in this country there is a big attitude of looking the other way and never admitting faults. I also think England is sooooooooo patriotic (and any lighter opinions you post in here will get super reported) that sometimes it's to the extent of cover up the big screwed-up stuff, never talk about it and pretend it didn't happen.
I didn't grow up here and was too young to remember what Margaret Tatcher did but I will follow this question with interest.
See how soon I get reported for saying things that people doesn't like to hear.

Answer 6

Are you for real! No i am not going to defend Margaret Thatcher i never liked her, but did you really expect Britain to sit down and do nothing about the Falklands invasion. What about our personnel that were killed, ask someone that was there they will tell you. I know someone that was on Sir Gallahad luckily they were not killed but alot of men were.

Answer 7

It was a war started by the Argentine Military Junta lead by General Galtieri ,who sought political gain,the Belgrano was sunk for operational reasons and not as a political statement,I know at the time it was allegedly sailing away from the Islands and was not inside the exclusion zone but it was working in conjunction with their aircraft carrier (I think it was called the 25th May) and as such posed a very serious threat to the Task Force,it would have been irresponsible of the Task Force commanders not to have taken action against such a threat ,after the sinking, their Aircraft carrier returned to port and took no part in the fighting,it was not a war crime and in answer to your question no she should not be arrested as there is no case to answer.All loss of life on both sides was a tragedy but lets just keep this in perspective shall we, they invaded British sovereign territory and took control by force they had plenty of time to pack up and leave but they chose not to, instead they dug in and laced the many beaches with land mines which are still being cleared today I'd say that the indiscriminate use of land mines is a lot closer to a war crime so maybe the Argentine commanders responsible for that should be put on trial?

Answer 8

If the Argentinians had not invaded, their ship would not have been attacked.
Should the Argentinians all be arrested for war crimes as well?
They got off lightly. British soildiers died because of their aggession.
The British should have bombed their cities and taught them a lesson they would never forget.
I dislike Thathcher as she was an uncaring PM. But she never took any S*** from any piss a** forigners and she took desisions that needed to be taken. She should have been decorated for her actions during the Falklands war.

Answer 9

what war crimes? the belgrano was sunk because that ship was in the no go zone. that she was steaming away, is quite beside the point, British forces were sent to the Falklands to defend OUR country, maggie did not order the ship to be sunk, the officers on the sub simply did what they were there for. if you ask me the UK should have used a tactical battle field nuclear weapon to attack Buenos Aries. I' am definitely NOT a fan of Maggie, but I despise General Galtieri much, much more!

Answer 10

No why should she be arrested, when the Argies were trying to take what wasn't theirs. The Falklands had been in British hands since 1833.

In fact why not let General Leopoldo Galtieri stand trial for war crimes!!! He fixed Exocet missiles on to our troop ships, missing one The HMS Yarmouth, and setting fire to HMS Sheffield. Perhaps you would like to ask the families of the 20 men who were killed, and 24 men who were injured on HMS Sheffield whether they would like the despot to have stood or stand trial.

And at the end of the day the Prime Minister may be the final mouthpiece in acts of war, but they are told how a war will be fought and conducted by the highest ranking officers, and generals in all of the armed forces. It is not down to the Prime Minister alone to say what goes.

You are just one of the too many warmongers out there who incite people into causing unrest, and civil uprisings!!!

Answer 11

To be honest, no.
Cant stand the old bag, but just because she is disliked doesn't mean she did anything wrong. Why everyone got worked up about the Exclusion Zone I dont know. It was a British construct, a nominal zone of inferred authority. There was no UN resolution stating that all conflict would be illegal OUTSIDE the zone.
What it was a a clear message of intent: if we, the British, find you, the Argentines, withing this zone we will sink you/shoot you down. No one ever said "But if you are outside we will deliberately not shoot at you even if you armed to the teeth with planes and missles".

Imagine the trouble Thatcher would have been if either the Belgrano or The 25th of May [their aircraft carrier] sank or attacked UK forces, from outside the zone, and she could have stopped them?

Actaully we may have had some industry left in Scotland!