"Let us not forget Thatcher's decision to bomb the Belgrano, with the loss of nearly 200 young Argentinians, as it headed away from the battlefield." - Peter K (Fionn)

Ah, the Belgrano was "bombed" was it Peter? News to me, to Margaret Thatcher and to Christopher Wreford-Brown RN (The man who sank the Belgrano). I rather suspect that you would have seen her sail clean away until dusk, then reverse her course. There would have been potentially much greater loss of life then, a disproportionate number of them British servicemen.

The Argentinian Navy had two "ships of force", the Belgrano was one the Aircraft Carrier 25th May was the other. Sinking the Belgrano, when they did put the entire Argentinian Navy out of the conflict and saved hundreds of lives, by making the expulsion of Argentinian forces from the Falkland Islands that much easier.

Ard mhacha and Gwynne Dyer want to have a good look at the UN Charter and Mandates for Peace Keeping Operations as a whole before they start spouting about what UN "Peace-keepers" should and should not do from the safety of their armchairs.

"Which is probably closer to the real reason why the death penalty for war crimes is so vigorously opposed in the West." - Guest Shimrod

I think that "the death penalty" period is vigorously opposed in the West. I do not get the impression that it is particularly opposed in case of "war crimes".

"I agree with Shimrod regarding the hypocrisy of the western powers, the US and Britain cannot take the high moral ground considering their past record in world conflicts." - Ard Mhacha

I could not disagree more.

Talking about track records, these two pearls of comments from Peter K (Fionn) are absolutely priceless:

1 - "the UN should be made to account for its role in the atrocity."

"made to account"????? To whom????

2 - "the UN is only as effective as its member nations will allow it to be."

The United Nations from day one has been absolutely useless. It's "member nations" would howl with indignation if it were ever to come even remotely near effective in the pursuit of the aspirations of it's Charter.