Posted on 04/16/2012 4:00:37 PM PDT by jazusamo
The island chain 300 miles off the coast of Argentina has two names. The United Kingdom, which controls them as a protectorate, and the rest of the world call those islands the Falklands. Argentina calls them the Malvinas. Argentina has never owned the islands. Islanders are 90% British, descendants of the original settlers, and support their relationship with the UK. The UK has controlled the Falklands since 1830, and fought a war over them against Argentina in 1982 to keep them.
But that didn’t stop President Barack Obama from attempting to use the Argentinian name for the islands. And he even got that badly wrong .
President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name.
Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India.
It takes someone with a very limited understanding of geography to confuse the Maldives, a sovereign country near India, with the Malvinas, a political name attached to islands that are actually called the Falklands. For starters, the two island chains are in different oceans, more than 8,000 miles apart. The Falklands are in the south Atlantic; Maldives are in the Indian Ocean.
Of more importance, though, is Obama’s decision to wade into a sensitive issue between two of our allies in this way. The Falklands war was 30 years ago this month. The Argentine government has been ratcheting up anti-British rhetoric, demanding that the UK hand “Las Malvinas” over, and threatening to invade again. In his summit speech Obama claimed that the US is neutral, which was our official stance during the 1982 war and is now, but attempting to use the name “Malvinas,” and then bungling that, can be taken to suggest that he isn’t so neutral and would side with Argentina against the British.
The Telegraph calls this an “uncharacteristic” error, but this isn’t the first time Barack Obama has betrayed his geographical ignorance and political boneheadedness. In a recent speech in Hawaii, the president thought he was in Asia despite being born in Hawaii. Hawaii, a volcanic island chain 4,000 miles east of Asia, is not part of Asia or any other continent. In November 2011, Obama said that he was disturbed when Iranians stormed the “ English embassy” in Tehran, which was actually the British embassy. England is one of four nations, along with Scotland, and Wales, plus Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom. Calling it the “British embassy” would have been accurate; calling it the “English embassy” was not.
Besides all of that, Obama made the “Maldives” remark at the Summit of the Americas, a summit which has been full of outrages, errors and scandal. In this summit we’ve had the Secret Service call girl scandal and pics of our secretary of state boozing it up have hit the web. The error was by no means “uncharacteristic.”
The Falklands gaffe is the most significant, though. In the mixed signals and inattention it betrays on the part of the President of the United States, it could lead to another war.
Update : In another “uncharacteristic” gaffe, in 2009 Barack Obama invented a language: “Austrian.” There is an Austrian school of economics, but the Austrian people speak German. I suppose we should be thankful that he didn’t confuse them with Australians.
Absolutely.
He definitely has an agenda with the British and it has hurt our relations with them and other allies, IMO.
I noticed that too, but then realized he put it in quotation marks, I believe Preston is jabbing him.
“good grief...when will this walking embarrassment END!”
I’m hoping we only have about 6 months of his ACTUAL power grabs to endure. Of course, even if he’s defeated in November, he still has two months to wreak havoc. We’ve endured three and a half years of this insanity. It’s hard to imagine that the American people will re-elect this Marxist.
I wish the Republican establishment had stayed out of this; but I’d vote for my old dog, Dixie if she were running against this man.
Obama can see the Maldives from his house
The Brits give him a desk made from the timbers of a historic ship, the Resolute. He gives them movie DVDs and a set of his speeches on CD.
“What greater gift than the resonant voice of Myself?” thinks the feckless, conceited, stick-up-his-arse jerk-in-chief.
“Why, they can sit at home or in their cars and listen to me for hours.”
What a national dud, and an international failure. He must be making former presidents Clinton and Carter nervous as they jockey for the `Worst & Worst Former President’ award.
What a complete moron.
Seriously, if this were done by Bush, you'd have Scott Pelley, Brian Williams and whoever that clown is doing ABC news these days RAMMING IT DOWN the throats of their viewers for the next week.
There would be questions "Does Bush REALLY know ANYTHING about our allies?"
Obama does it, and you can barely hear a ripple except in the conservative media.
His hatred toward the UK and the Crown would have caused him to get this one right, ie call the Falkland Islands by their Argentine name to insult the British. Instead he referred to another unrelated group of islands. Had he said something like Finland rather than Falkland, I would buy the insult theory. This was just a gaff.
but attempting to use the name “Malvinas,” and then bungling that, can be taken to suggest that he isn’t so neutral and would side with Argentina against the British.
He returned the bust of Winston Churchill. He presented idiotic gifts to the Prime Minister and the Queen. He completely screwed the toast to the Queen.
Is he acting out of malice, idiocy or both?
You can always tell an affirmative action Harvard law school grad.
They are as dumb as a bag of stolen rocks but think they are the sharpest guys you’ll ever meet.
The lady in your Maldives photo had best get a burka. “The emergence of hard-line Islam in the Maldives is stoking concern in neighboring India that it could be used as a potential base for Islamist militants.” I guess Obama has already given covert assistance there. From misusing the Argentine term for the Falklands, O has tipped his hand. Sorry Britian.
“...the idiot would know the difference between the two.”
Considering the preliminary work Hillary Clinton did in publicly stating “we need to look into it again” or similar, and who knows what behind the scenes, Obama’s use of the name Malvinas was a message for Argentina, the UK, and South America. I seriously doubt it was a slip, but rather an open message.
He knows which name goes with which sovereign nation. With Chavez on the way out, there are big changes coming to South America. Russia has been investing and providing Kalashnikovs and ammo. No accident the Obama crew including Hillary are in Columbia right now.
Let me amend and revise my statement...his mistake was getting the name wrong but he was clearly trying to use the name Argentina uses for the Falklands. Calling them the Maldives was a goof, but the primary intent was to make a statement of political alignments and loyalties.
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