THE WORLD’S MOST PATRIOTIC PEOPLE

Stanley, Falkland Islands.  I was enjoying a pint of the local microbrewery’s Peat Cutter Stout at the Globe Tavern when a Falklander on an adjacent bar stool engaged me in conversation.

"Where are you from, mate?" he asked.

"America," I replied.

"You’re an American, are you?  Well, I have to tell you, Yank, I think your President Obama is disgusting."

This did not elicit the response he was expecting.  I raised my glass and with a huge smile across my face exclaimed, "I’ll drink to that!"

Taken aback, he queried, "You Americans are supposed to believe in freedom. Why do you have a president who won’t stand up for ours?"

"Because he won’t stand up for our own freedom, much less anyone else’s.  His goal in life is to destroy our freedom, not protect it.  He’s a fascist interested only in expanding his power, just like the Falklands’ enemy Christina Kirchner.  That’s why he will side with her and not with you."

He looked at me quizzically, blinked a few times, then asked, "Can I buy you a beer?"

This is a marvelous place, especially when the sun is shining and the wind isn’t blowing, a combo that’s unfortunately not often.  After all, the Falklands lie in the Furious 50s (50 degrees south latitude) – which is worse than the Roaring 40s but at least better than the Surreal 60s in the waters off Antarctica.

The two main islands, East & West Falkland plus a welter of smaller ones, are all together about the size the Connecticut.  3,000 Falklanders live here, 2,000 in Stanley, the rest scattered around in tiny communities out in "camp" (the countryside outside of Stanley).  Many are Scots, Irish, and Brits who’ve been here for generations raising sheep, some are descended from whalers.  Others are from Gibraltar, Scandinavia, Chile, and St. Helena (the island in the middle of the Atlantic the Brits exiled Napoleon upon – folks there pronounce it sint’l-ee-na).

They’re from many places.  One place they are not from is Argentina.  Hardly any Argentines have lived here for 180 years.  No matter where they are from, they have three things in common.  They are amazingly friendly and hospitable.  They are amazingly determined to be free of Argentina.  They are amazingly patriotic towards Britain.  So amazingly they are the most patriotic people in the world.

Every Falkland home proudly flies the British flag:

Almost every car has British flags affixed to it – not just one but several:

Some have signs that make it extra clear:

Don’t you wish you could see that in America?  Maybe some day we will, when America is free of the Curse of Zero.  But here’s a terrifying thought:  will we ever be?

Argentina was once a free and prosperous country.  Then, after World War II, a charismatic populist-fascist named Juan Peron gained the country’s presidency in 1946 and was reelected in 1952. He and his wife Eva Peron ("Evita") didn’t just ruin the country.  They ruined it forever.  Peronistas have dominated Argentine politics since, and today the place is ruled by a Peronista Evita wannabe.

As a result of the Curse of Peron, there is a sickness in the Argentine soul.  The place can’t grow up.  It is consumed with what I call Little Dick Machismo – South American mama’s boys pretending they are real men, strutting around puffed up with a façade of arrogance and insufferably phony ego. 

Christina knows how to play these Argentine men like a harp. While she runs the economy straight into the ground with her Peronista fascism, she gets everyone distracted with incessant jingoistic clamoring for the Falklands, which have been solidly British since 1833, and whose inhabitants want nothing whatever to do with her or her country.

America today is suffering the Curse of Zero.  While Americans don’t suffer from Little Dick Machismo, the real source of Peron’s and Zero’s support are the same:  make as many people as possible dependent on government.  Argentina has never recovered from such mass dependency.  America will never recover from Zero’s Curse until such mass dependency – 47 million on food stamps, for example – is gone and Americans en masse accept personal responsibility for their existence.

Falklanders do – their’s is a rugged existence and they accept it.  There are 600,000 sheep on these islands – that’s a lot of wool, a lot of lamb, and a lot of work for 3,000 folks.  Yet they love their life, and they love their country – Britain.

On March 9-10, in a referendum to determine whether Falklanders wanted to (a) remain a British Overseas Territory, (b) be under the control of Argentina, or (c) become a fully independent state, 99.8% voted for (a), to remain British.  There were lots of international observers and the vote was scrupulously fair.

Yet, predictably, Christina denounced the vote, and called Falklanders "squatters on Argentine soil" who have no right to self-determination whatever.  You won’t get a more textbook example of fascism than that.

Moreover, Christina is desperately trying to get the new Argentine Pope, Francis I, to take her side and thus politicize the papacy.  This puts Francis in a real bind.

He’s already being smeared by the CommieMedia for being allied with the generals who led Argentina’s "Dirty War" of murderous tyranny in the 1970s.  Why are they smearing him?  Primarily because he’s resolutely opposed to homosexual "marriage."  But if he bows to pressure from Christina, the British government may amplify those smears to discredit him.

Shortly after the referendum results were announced last week (3/15), British Prime Minister David Cameron said he "respectfully" disagreed with Francis who was quoted (before his election as Pope) that the Falklands were "Argentine soil."  Instead, the referendum’s vote made it clear, Cameron said, that there was "white smoke over the Falklands."

It’s going to be interesting to see how Francis finesses this.

Those Argentine generals, by the way, were the ones who perpetrated the Falkands War of 1982, militarily invading and seizing the islands.  They never thought that Britain, a washed-up ex-superpower, could fight back.  They didn’t count on Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher – nor on Ronald Reagan or Bill Casey.

Thanks to Thatcher’s Churchillian leadership and the extraordinary heroism of British soldiers and seamen, the Argentine invaders were defeated and Falklanders given their freedom back.

There is a memorial to those Brits who sacrificed for this freedom in the center of Stanley:

Appropriately, it’s on:

Yet there’s a story about the Falklands War that’s never been told.  This was a real war, and there were a number of moments when it was touch-and-go.  The most key turning point was when the Argentine submarine San Luis had the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes lined up for a torpedo strike. 

The Hermes was the lynchpin of the British effort:

The Captain of the San Luis had the Hermes perfectly sighted in his periscope.  He ordered all six torpedos fired.  The sinking of the Hermes, he knew, could win the war for Argentina.  Here is a description of what happened on a military website discussion forum:

"ALL the torpedos ‘went haywire’ AFTER launch, running all over the place rather than settling down on any given course. Eventually, the Argentines had concluded correctly that SIX erratic runs by six different torpedos was unlikely to be a torpedo problem. More probably, the problem was a submarine defect. Investigation revealed an interesting example of Human Error…. Someone had reconnected that twin lead DC power wire with its leads REVERSED."   

Just bad luck right?  Innocent human error lost the war for the Argies.  Over a glass of very good Scotch, Bill Casey, Ronald Reagan’s CIA Director, told me what really happened.  That "someone" who reversed the firing leads was on his payroll, whom Bill instructed to sabotage the torpedos in just the right way at just the right time.

Thanks, Bill.

The Falklanders admire and respect Ronald Reagan.  "Your greatest president!" they tell me.  But they loathe and despise Zero.  "He’s a bloody coward," is their opinion.  That’s also the opinion of the British press.

Of course, Zero is a coward, afraid to stand up for freedom.  But what about Americans?  When are we going to regain our courage to stand up for our own freedom?  We could learn a profound lesson in courage and patriotism from the people of the Falklands.  You don’t have to come here to learn it – but if you do, you’ll meet wonderful people who’ll inspire you.  And they’ll never let you buy a pint of Peat Cutter Stout.  That’s on them.