Falklands Crisis Signals DECLINE OF THE WEST - John R Schroeder - August 1982

John R Schroeder

Pax Britannica and Pax Americana are both at an end! No longer can they police the world as they once did. Why? Following the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, it took Her Majesty the best part of two days to review the Royal Navy. Twenty-five years later at the Silver Jubilee celebration, the Queen had finished the job before the first morning was over. Admiral Stansfield Turner, former head of NATO, on a recent BBC radio interview was highly concerned about the lack of real depth in the Royal Navy. Lack of financial and other resources has forced a succession of British governments to sharply curtail their conventional naval fighting force over the last 30 years. Why, then, was the Foreign Office so tardy in coming to an agreement with Argentina concerning an equitable disposition of the Falkland Islands? Sir Winston Churchill was forced to remark that World War II be labeled above all as "The Unnecessary War." How much more has the conflict in the South Atlantic been both unnecessary and a waste of valuable money and precious manpower? After all, the British have already yielded up the lion's share of their Empire with hardly a whimper. Why then did London allow a series of unfortuitous circumstances finally to pressure them into sending the remnant of a once great maritime fighting force into the frigid South Atlantic over property of doubtful value? - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library