Timothy Birdnow

I wish he wouldn't do this but I can't say I blame him. Britain is so weak now why not?

Argentina never had much of a claim to the Falklands. Their claim is based not on any possession of those islands by Argentina but on the old Spanish colonial claim to the islands. They did create a very small colony on East Falkland at Port Soledad, and the British came and wiped that colony out and settled the islands themselves.

The British discovered the islands and they began to look at settling them, but the French came along and planted a small colony, which they ceded to the Spanish. In 1770 the Spanish expelled the British colonists and claimed the island for themselves.

Argentina did claim the islands upon independence, but their claim was weak as they never settled it. The U.S. declared it "free of government", refusing to recognize Argentinian claims. In 1833 the British came back in force, establishing their colony at Port Stanley and thus claiming the islands for themselves.

Argentina just doesn't have much of a claim to these islands. They never settled them didn't use them (why? They controlled the Strait of Magellan while the Brits used Port Stanley as a staging ground for ships to round Cape Horn - a harder passage but one necessitated by Argentina's unwillingness to allow the strait to be used.)

The British did colonize the land but not by much; Port Stanley today has just 2,974 people, and there are another 500 people scattered over the islands, which are the size of the state of Connecticut.

Port Stanley is more British than is Britain these days and the islands are what you think of when you think of the old Empire. 

When Argentina tried to seize the islands before they were met by a British military that still had SOME teeth, and by a British government under Margaret Thatcher still willing to defend British interests. They did it with their flagship being a naval vessel already sold for scrap! But the U.S. helped them with logistics, and they flew sorties from Ascensiion Island in the mid-Atlantic. Today they could probably fly sorties from Britain proper, but it's doubtful they will.

Britain is dying and Argentina is trying to feast on the corpse, vulture style.

The British made the Falklands kind of a nature preserve, and the few people who live their live in splendid isolation, a backwater at the end of the Earth. It rains 260 days a year and is always cool, with summer temps in the 50's and winter in the high thirties. oh, sn it's in the middle of the "Roaring Forties" meaning it's incredibly windy all the time, which is why trees don't grow there by and large. A few exist in some sheltered spots, planted by the colonists.

I've long wanted to plant an American colony there and vote to leave the British Empire in favor of independence. Bring only conservative folks who remember the old America. We could easily outvote the natives and make it an independent country.

Well, if Britain can't or won't defend the Falklands maybe the Falklands will vote to become an American protectorate? Plebiscites on the islands show the people do not in any way want to become part of Argentina.

Milei is trying to gin up support in Argentina for his government and this is something that has long stuck in the Argentine craw. Now there is a good chance he might be able to pull it off too. But it is wrong and Argentina has no claim on those islands as far as I am concerned.

Time for Trump to step up to the Sub-Antarctic. It is nowhere nearly as important as Greenland, but we can secure South America by controlling these islands. I think we should make them territories, like the Marshall Islands or Guam or even Puerto Rico. A naval base there would be useful in many ways.

Anyway watch for a second Falkland War, or not. It probably will wind up being another bad deal like Starmer cut for the Chagos Archipelago and Diego Garcia, or like the Brits did with Hong Kong back at the turn of the last century.

BTW oil was discovered down there, making it more attractive. Before  that their main exports were wool and fish. Yipee! Now Argentina wants it more than ever. 

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