It’s always funny when you hear Argentines talk about the Falklands War: They will list each British warship lost as a major victory, even as they kept absorbing those punches and keeping their remaining ships reasy to battle; treat the loss of ARA Belgrano as a war crime, which made their navy flee back to port never to do something of note ever again; never ever mention the loss of ARA Santa Fe, the first and only submarine lost to helicopters, and the last submarine successfully attacked with depth charges; mention their brave pilot flying so low they kept getting their canopies clouded by sea foam, while omitting the shit equipment most of their planes had (no radio altimeters, RWRs, IR countermeasures and in some cases even working guns); and rave about the resistance of their ground forces, even when they kept getting clowned by smaller ATTACKING British forces time and again (in warfare the attacker always has to bring more men to the fight while also expecting higher losses, the opposite in most clashes during the conflict).
All to claim they almost won, if only more bombs actually detonated, if only they had more exocets, if only said exocets also actually detonated, if only the Sea Harriers didn’t come with the deadly AIM-9L, if only they had put refueling probes on their Mirages, if only they had lengthened the runway at Port Stanley, if only…
So the war lives rent-free in their heads, making them seethe and rage over the British flag still flying over Port Stanley, that most of the world still calls it that and not “Puerto Argentino”, and that they remain the Falklands and not the Malvinas.
And the funniest thing: While Britain replaced those warships lost, and eventually replaced almost all the equipment used in the war, from the carriers Hermes and Invincible with Queen Mary and Prince of Whales
the Sea Harriers with F-35Bs
among other equipment, Argentina still uses the same Skyhawks they kept feeding Sea Harries with
still uses the very same FALs those cold and poorly trained conscripts used in the war
All while losing their carrier force, their naval air attack force, their submarine force, their amphibious assault force, and up until very recently, their fighter jet force.
Its ironic, their inability to accept defeat and move on has hurt their military tremendously, and will continue to do so for as long as they still believe they can take over those cold, lonely islands.
