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Argentines ban British ships

Not real action - UK commentator

This really appears to be a tempest in a teapot, as my Pappy used to observe.

Argentina apparently has banned ships carrying the flag of the United Kingdom from paying any port calls in the province surrounding its capital, Buenos Aires.

What is the big deal? None, really, but it appears that the current government still is in a snit about the Falkland Islands remaining under British control. Back in 1982, the Argentinians got their derrieres handed them after they tried to seize the islands (inhabited by English-speaking people who mainly herd sheep and go fishing in the South Atlantic). The Argentine government goes on one of these spates every now and then, I guess, whenever it risks becoming unpopular with the people.

Still, it would seem to me, that the Falklands should be ruled by the people that the people in the Falklands want, and, at last look, they were firmly on the side of being governed from London.

The whole dispute, however, is over … drum-roll please … OIL. It seems that under the seas around the island archipelago there are possibly significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas. Since oil and gas equal money in the bank, something every nation needs, the Argentinians are rattling sabers again trying to provoke the Brits into giving the islands to Argentina.

It is not that the Argentines really have any claim to the island group, since it really hasn’t exercised any control over them. Its only claim is that the islands like less than 300 miles off the coast, while London is some 9,000 miles away.

Then again, it is quite doubtful that the current Argentine military, at least from reports, is up to the effort of trying to pull off another invasion. But then again, the Royal Navy isn’t really up to launching a counter-invasion like it did in 1982.

Actually, the whole thing is a farce. My solution is for the Falkland Islands to declare their independence, ally themselves with Britain, and then join the United Nations. What the heck, it has worked for some of the island chains in the Pacific.