The British commander who led the 1982 task force to the Falkland Islands says he is deeply concerned about the impact a Labour government could have on the security of the South Atlantic islands.
Major General Julian Thompson, the Royal Marines officer who led Britain’s successful military operation against Argentine forces, believes Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party presents a real risk to the security of the islanders.
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The Labour leader apparently once called the war, which cost 255 British lives, “a nauseating waste of money and lives” and “one of those crazy conflicts of flag-waving nonsense.”
“I felt irritated, to put it mildly,” Thompson told the Times.
“Here is a chap who sets himself up as a socialist, and presumably therefore anti-fascist, who was prepared to see British people consigned to spending their lives under the rule of a fascist junta,” he said.
Asked how he felt about the prospect of the lifelong anti-war campaigner becoming prime minister after the June 8 election, Thompson said: “Horror, horror — I can’t express it more strongly.
“I am worried at the thought of that guy being in charge. It is very worrying because he could do some deal with Argentina.”
Another veteran of the conflict also attacked Corbyn’s view of the islands and the war that engulfed them 35 years ago.
Former Welsh guardsman Simon Weston, who was severely burned when his ship was bombed, said Corbyn’s comments were “crassly stupid.”
“It makes me balk. I feel rather queasy. He is historically, geographically and every other aspect of wrong in every point he makes,” he said.
Tory and establishment figures have often attacked Corbyn for his opposition to UK military adventures.
In May, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry accused Defense Secretary Michael Fallon of talking “bollocks” live on air when he made similar claims.
“That is bollocks. It’s untrue. You can’t just make this stuff up,” she said, adding “I think that, as a matter of last resort, if British citizens are being attacked, we defend them.”
