Sean Penn and the Falkland Islands

What is it with the rabid anti-British Americans like Sean Penn who in their rush to condemn anything British choose to blind themselves to the truth?
In a speech in Uruguay he condemns British ‘colonialism’ with regard to the Falklands Islands, calling Britain a ‘colonial dinosaur’.
Now that’s a bit rich, and typical of American hypocrisy, when the greatest colonial power in the world today is, not Britain but the United States of America!

Consider a list of the current American ‘colonies’, although they don’t of course call them that, because America decries colonialism doesn’t it? No, the American colonies are face-savingly referred to as ‘unincorporated territories’, here are just a few of them:

Baker Island
Jarvis Island
Howland Island
Kingman Reef
Johnston Atoll.
Navassa Island
Midway Atoll
the Serranilla Bank
the Bajo Nuevo Bank.
Puerto Rico,
Guam,
American Samoa
Wake Island
The Panama Canal Zone
The Virgin Islands and the
Northern Mariana Islands

The Americans even have an official philosophy to excuse their rampant colonialism, it’s called American Exceptionalism and refers to the theory that the United States is superior to, and occupies a special niche, among the nations of the world and so is excused from acting as other nations and is both above and an exception to the law, specifically the Law of Nations.

Let us further explore American hypocrisy.

In 1942 an island group, lets call it Hawaii, thousands of miles from America, but to which the USA claimed ownership by right of conquest (isn’t that colonialism?) and with no indigenous American populace, was attacked by a country under the control of a military dictatorship.
America responded with a full declaration of war against this military-led country and atom bombed two of it’s cities to destruction.

In 1982 a group of islands thousand of miles from Britain, with a 100% indigenous British population, were attacked and occupied by a country under the control of a military dictatorship. Britain responded with a limited engagement to secure the removal of the invading force, with the full approval of the United Nations, and refrained from following America’s object lesson in 1945 and slaughtering hundreds of thousands innocent civilians.

Sound familiar? It should as this was the Falkland Islands conflict to which Americans like Sean Penn so hypocritically refer to as an example of British colonialism.

I wonder is it jealousy that fuels this naked hatred of anything British amongst a certain type of American?

Whatever the root cause of American hypocrisy and anti-British sentiment, (surely by now they’ve forgiven us for burning the White House in 1812), the stupidity of Sean Penn and his acolytes can only fuel an expectation amongst Latin American countries, and Argentina in particular, that America is ‘on their side’ and does not support it’s only real ally, the only one it can rely on to send troops and add support during conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan (not many Uruguayans and Argentineans fighting alongside US Marines in Helmund Province).

Let us not forget a couple of other facts which the USA chooses to disregard:
America and the United Nations Charter are committed to the right of any people to self-determination, that is, the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference. Indeed, it is the very cornerstone of the United States Declaration of Independence.



The people of the Falkland Islands are indigenously British and have expressed, time without number, their wish to remain sovereignly and politically British. Would America deny them that right they claimed for themselves in 1776?
Ah yes of course it would, American Exceptionalism at work again, although one might consider it more American Hypocrisy!

One last word, this country, Argentina, that Sean Penn so enthusiastically supports is the same one which in 1945 provided a safe haven for numerous Nazis fleeing the consequences of their barbarity and which currently, almost solely amongst nations, is assisting Iran with the development of its nuclear program in order that it can build an atom bomb so the lunatic in charge, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can fulfil his pledge to use it to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.

Sounds like just the sort of ‘friend’ America deserves.