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General attacks Beckett and Blair over lack of 'moral certainty'
Last updated at 11:52am on 03.04.07
Attack: General Sir Michael Rose accused Margaret Beckett of getting the Falklands commemoration wrong
Margaret Beckett: Hit by public outcry over her comments
The officer who led the SAS in the Falklands War has attacked Margaret Beckett and Tony Blair for their lack of 'moral certainty'.
General Sir Michael Rose, who went on to command British forces in Bosnia, echoed the outrage expressed by veterans after Mrs Beckett voiced 'continuing regret' over both British and Argentine casualties.
Writing in today's Daily Mail, he accuses the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister of getting the commemoration of yesterday's 25th anniversary wrong.
And he blames Mr Blair for the loss of Britain's international reputation, claiming he had gone to war in Iraq on a 'false justification'.
Mrs Beckett was hit by a public outcry led by veterans yesterday after she issued a formal statement which made no attempt to highlight the achievement of British forces against considerable odds in the Falklands.
There are fears the Foreign Secretary's conciliatory approach will be interpreted as a sign of weakness in Argentina, which is experiencing resurgent nationalism.
The country marked the anniversary of its failed attempt to regain the Falklands by force by reasserting its claims to the territory. Using the islands' Argentine name, Vice President Daniel Scioli said at a commemoration service in Ushuaia, the world's southernmost city: 'Neither war nor the passage of time changes reality — Las Malvinas are Argentine.'
In contrast to Mrs Beckett's approach, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher marked the anniversary by expressing her pride in the actions of the 255 Britons who died.
Dressed all in black — as she was throughout the 74-day conflict — she laid a wreath of yellow and white roses, lilies and orchids at the foot of the Falklands Memorial in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.
It bore the words: 'In memory of those who have given their lives for Britain and for the Falklands Islands — Margaret Thatcher.'
Lady Thatcher, 81, was accompanied by Miss Sukie Cameron, the Falkland Islands representative in Britain, who herself laid a basket of lilies at the foot of the memorial.
Reader views (4)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
It is disgusting that the current regime with all their rethoric about 15 captured servicemen, would attempt to honor those who attacked British citizens and territory, this is just another fine example of the way weak willed politicians are so obssessed with reconcilliation for reconcilliation's sake that they fail to see the way they turn Britain in a laughing stock.
- Leo Jeff, St Merryn, Cornwall
The Falklands may have been Las Malvinas of Argentine 150 years ago but not now.
The first Spaniard to land in Argentina, Juan de Solis, was killed in 1516, and several attempts to found Buenos Aires were stymied by the local inhabitants. Inland cities were more successful, and it wasn't until the late 16th century that Buenos Aires was securely established. Eventually the Spanish ruled Argentina. Therefore do we give Argentina back to the Spanish?
Before the Spanish, the Diaguita and the Guarani constituted the origins of permanent agricultural civilization in Argentina. Do we therefore declare seperate independant states for the descendants of those people?
Let's go even further back in time (from the sublime to the ridiculous you might say) over 150 million years the Falklands were closer to South Africa than Argentina, so maybe they should make a claim to sovereignty?
Go back another 150 million years and you will find that UK was at the center of a massive continent, which included africa, south america, north america and most of Europe, which is probably why the British were compelled to try and claim it all back and had a massive empire.
That brings us in a full circle. Do we now give the British 5/8s of the worlds landmass, which they were once at the center of and then later conquered (reclaimed sovereignty)?
- Perry, Chengdu China
The sad truth is that Labour governments in general and this one in particular have no inherent sense for world matters and Britain's role in them. Their parochial, mean-minded attitude which will naturally belittle 'right-wing, nationalist' achievements such as the armed forces' in the Falklands conflict stretches to a merely insincere backing for our men and women in Iraq, who are there merely to build Blair's would-be legacy as a world figure, and our forces in Afghanistan who would be all but forgotten if it were not for inconvenient casualties in some measure caused by under-equipment.
As for Margaret Beckett: judge her by what the lilylivered outcome of our little Iran crisis will be.
- Oliver Frey, Ludlow, Shropshire
Well done Maggie. Shame on Beckett. Nu Labour are a bunch of wets destroying our heritage, traditions and appeasing those who one day will turn against us big time because we are weak!
- John, ex pat, Bangkok, Thailand
