Falkland War anniversary, deja vu all over again

GlobalPost

The Falkland Islands is an archipelago in the South Atlantic around 290 miles off the coast of Argentina. They have been a British Overseas Territory since 1833 and today a little over 3,000 British people live there. But Argentina has always laid claim to the Falklands calling them Las Malvinas islands.

Thirty years ago this led to war.

In 1982, Argentina invaded. Then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched an expeditionary force which recaptured the islands. Close to a 1,000 men on both sides lost their lives.

You would think the 30th anniversary of such a conflict would be time for sombre reflection. You would be wrong.

Argentina's President Christina Fernandez de Kerchner has been demanding talks on the island's future - she wants them to revert to Argentine control. She has accused Britain of "arrogance" for refusing to engage in discussions and said the country "continues to be a crude colonial power in decline."

Yesterday, at Prime Minister's Question Time, David Cameron hit back and said, "What the Argentineans have been saying recently, I would argue, is actually far more like colonialism because these people want to remain British and the Argentineans want them to do something else."

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