China is responding sternly to a U.S. congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan, demanding the U.S. stop any official contact with the self-governing island.

China is responding sternly to a U.S. congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan, demanding the U.S. stop any official contact with the self-governing island.

  • @tal
    2•4 months ago

    I’m kind of dubious about the whole idea of going to war to gain political points.

    It can pay off, but you’re hoping for a quick, inexpensive, victorious war. If it gets long and costly and not victorious, it can very much work the other way.

    And a giant amphibious assault with the US Navy on the other side has considerable potential for being costly.

    Argentina tried the same “let’s seize some islands to score political points” with the British, and it was a considerable mistake.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War

    In the period leading up to the war—and, in particular, following the transfer of power between the military dictators General Jorge Rafael Videla and General Roberto Eduardo Viola late in March 1981—Argentina had been in the midst of devastating economic stagnation and large-scale civil unrest against the National Reorganization Process, the military junta that had been governing the country since 1976.

    In December 1981, there was a further change in the Argentine military regime, bringing to office a new junta headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri (acting president), Air Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo and Admiral Jorge Anaya. Anaya was the main architect and supporter of a military solution for the long-standing claim over the islands, expecting that the United Kingdom would never respond militarily.

    By opting for military action, the Galtieri government hoped to mobilise the long-standing patriotic feelings of Argentines towards the islands, diverting public attention from the chronic economic problems and the ongoing human rights violations of its Dirty War, bolstering the junta’s dwindling legitimacy. The newspaper La Prensa speculated on a step-by-step plan beginning with cutting off supplies to the islands, ending in direct actions late in 1982, if the UN talks were fruitless.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_Falklands_War

    The Argentine loss of the war led to ever-larger protests against the Galtieri regime and is credited with giving the final push to drive out the military junta that had overthrown Isabel Perón in 1976 and perpetrated the crimes of the Dirty War. Galtieri was forced to resign and elections were held on 30 October 1983 and a new president, Raúl Alfonsín, the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party candidate, took office on 10 December 1983, defeating Italo Luder, the candidate for the Justicialist Party (Peronist movement).