CelticRover

Clearly a diversionary tactic to focus national attention elsewhere, however if they wait long enough, it might get easier to deal with:

British Army could be cut to just 50,000 over next four years, report warns - Telegraph

Pulaski

That's a pretty safe bet as the Argentinian economy has been a basket case for almost all of the past 40+ years despite a huge wealth of natural resources. I doubt the current strategy of punishing foreign investors is going to improve matters much.

MattieC86

I'm very much on the "no" side of this, not because of the war but because of a certain vote that took place in the not too distant past. However what does bother me is 1) that if the Argentinians do make another move on the Falklands, the British military would be powerless to do anything about it (thanks Blair, Brown and Cameron) and 2) The reality is that the South Americans do see it as an "occupation", and that's one more problem for an already unpopular nation around the world.

Two things I'd like to know on this subject; is it true that there is a set of Dutch "owned" (for want of a better word) islands that the UN accept as legal, whilst the UN have declared the British position of the Falklands illegal? Also what difference would it make - good and bad - if the Falklands were given to Argentina? I'm asking because I don't know, that's all.

Pulaski

The only Dutch owned islands I know of are Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, half of St Maartin, and I think one other, all in the Caribbean. The difference is that I don't think any other country is claiming sovereignty over them.

The UN is mostly a bunch of tin pot dictatorships so I don't give a lot of credibility to the UN assertion that the Falklands are illegally occupied. In any case, so far as I know, there is no indigenous native population that predates the British settlers, and there never has been, and the UN has hundreds of more pressing disagreements to resolve. For starters, I suspect that China, a permanent member of the security council, is more than happy to deflect attention away from Tibet at any and every opportunity!

MattieC86

Thanks Pulaski.

BritInParis

The UN has not declared the UK's possession of the Falklands Islands illegal. Several resolutions have been passed requesting the UK and Argentina resolve the issue through negotiation. The UK has asked Argentina to take the matter to the International Court of Justice on several occasions but Argentina has refused to - presumably because they know they will lose.

kimilseung

British Overseas Territories are under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom; but not part of it. Aruba for example is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. French islands like Guadeloupe are prefectures of France. (I do not know why the UK does not do something similar with its BOTs.)

CelticRover

Here is a Falklands politician, making her case on her country's claim to the islands.

Australian surfer bitten after landing on shark

Pulaski

Are you sure?

CelticRover

Of course I'm sure.

Don't Be Fooled by Dialogue -- Argentina Only Wants One Answer to 'the Falklands Question' | Jan Cheek

uk_grenada

Argentina should definitely invade. Im sure cameron has made that clear to them, but not till closer to the next election... Worked for maggie.

Seriously, oil and the local population makeup make it impossible for argentina to any more than rattle their cage, if they did invade i'm sure any number of countries politicians would love to attack such a soft target to free the local population from an occupation.