Trump, Making Waves Over the Falklands, Suggests to Starmer Risk of Being ‘Separated From the Americans’

Reuters is reporting a leaked Pentagon memo saying that America is reconsidering its support for Europe’s “imperial possessions.” The news is raising tensions over the Falkland Islands, a last outpost of the British Empire. It’s the first sign that North Atlantic Treaty allies may pay a price for opposing President Trump’s military operation in Iran.“Sovereignty rests with the U.K.,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said via a spokesman after the Reuters story was issued. He averred that the “right to self-determination” for Falklanders “is paramount.” In 2013, all but 0.2 percent of residents voted to stay British. Argentina rejected the vote.The issue is being reopened in response to Britain refusing to let America use jointly-operated bases. Sir Keir allowed a “defensive” presence only after Iran showed its missiles could hit London and it needed America’s shield. Yet when asked to send some help the other way, Sir Keir declared that Iran was “not our war.”Now, Britons are gobsmacked that America would consider sitting out a repeat of 1982’s Falklands War and might side with Argentina’s friendlier president, Javier Milei. “We are doing everything humanly possible,” Mr. Milei said on Thursday, “to bring Las Malvinas back into Argentine hands.”Crowds on the dockside at Portsmouth as a Royal Navy light aircraft carrier, HMS Invincible, returns from the Falklands, September 17 1982. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThe islands have never been part of Argentina, though Buenos Aires asserted a claim to the Falklands in 1816. Argentine forces were expelled from the Falklands by Britain in 1833. Even so, anti-imperialists have long backed Buenos Aires’s claim to the territory 300 miles away. Jorge Luis Borges referred to the Falklands War as “two bald men fighting over a comb.” Yet oil was discovered there in 2010, and the first project next year is projected to generate $5 billion.President Obama in 2012 professed “neutrality” on the Falklands, and his administration referred to the islands as Las Malvinas, the Argentine name. Contrast Britain’s quiet response then to Sir Keir’s rush to take offense at a memo that only mentions America taking a fresh look at Europe’s colonial possessions.In the event of a second invasion, Great Britain wouldn’t be able to invoke NATO’s mutual defense clause because the Falklands are outside the treaty’s zone. London would have to ask for help as it did 44 years ago this month when Argentina invaded and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher vowed that the Empire would take the Falklands back.Although America declared neutrality then, too, President Reagan ordered the Pentagon to give Thatcher “everything she needs,” including satellite data. The United States Navy prepared to lend the Royal Navy an assault ship if Argentina sank either of its two carriers.President Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher outside the White House in 1981. Via Wikimedia CommonsSir Keir hasn’t cultivated a bond with Mr. Trump as Thatcher did with Reagan. He prefers to needle him. When the president called Sir Keir “no Winston Churchill,” the comparison highlighted how this prime minister rejected the final advice that the Greatest Briton gave to his cabinet.“Never,” Churchill said upon retiring in 1955, “be separated from the Americans.” Modern Britons may consider that admonition unnecessary since they’ve never known the nations to be parted. Churchill did. As war clouds gathered in 1900, he was concerned about being deployed to attack the Yanks out of Canada.Churchill worked hard to forge the “special relationship” that Sir Keir takes for granted. This meant overlooking slights, launching a transatlantic charm offensive, and accepting that the Brits needed the Yanks more than the Yanks needed them.Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Trump meet at the White House, February 27, 2025. Carl Court/pool via APThat is the case now more than ever. Thatcher sent more than 100 ships 8,000 miles to reclaim the Falklands. Today, the United Kingdom’s defense secretary, John Healey, says that the Royal Navy consists of just “17 frigates and destroyers.” Neither of their carriers is seaworthy.“Britannia,” as this columnist wrote for The New York Sun last week, “may still sing the same old song but it has long since ceased to rule the waves.” The 1,000 military personnel and four Typhoon jets on the Falklands would have to hold out for a long time before supplies and reinforcements arrived. It took three weeks for the armada to arrive in 1982.A change of American support for colonial possessions might mean the sun setting on the British Empire. Anti-imperialists and Argentines will cheer that end. If Sir Keir wishes to “rage, rage against the dying of the light,” Dylan Thomas’s poetic words, he ought to embrace Churchill’s advice and cease being separated from the Americans.

Trump, Making Waves Over the Falklands, Suggests to Starmer Risk of Being ‘Separated From the Americans’

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