Not the Falklands, not the Malvinas, but Les Iles Malouines

For the last year or so, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has been engaged in a new propaganda war. making bellicose declarations disputing the links between the Falkland Islands and the United Kingdom and reasserting Argentine sovereignty over those islands, where an English colony was established in 1766.

Of course, you don't have to be very old to remember that the Argentine military junta invaded the Falklands Islands back in 1982. The Falklands War lasted from April 2 to June 14, 1982, and resulted in the deaths of 649 Argentines, 258 Brtitish, almost 2,000 wounded on both sides and major losses of military ships and aircraft
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The result: a decisive British victory which indirectly resulted in the collapse of the Argentine mililtary junta led by dictator Leopoldo Galtieri.

How can the Argentines be so stupid as to want to take over the Falklands where 100% of the people are English, 100% speak English and 100% don't want to be Argentines?
 

The British should just call a referendum or a plebicite and let the islanders settle it once and for all.  It's called democracy.

There's a precedent: the dispute between France and Germany over the Saarland.  France invaded the Saarland, which was then part of Germany,  on September 7, 1939.   In turn, Germany invaded France on May 10, 1940.  At the end of World War II, the Saarland was included in the French military occupation zone.  After some bilateral negotiations, a plebicite was held on October 23, 1955; 67.7% of the voters rejected continued French suzerainty. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland was formally reintegrated into Germany.  Case closed!
 

Of course, it's all domestic politics in Argentina.  Every time there are some domestic troubles--usually inflation or unemployement--the Argentine politicans fire up the "Malvinas" rhetoric and start their ridiculous saber-rattling. Cristina is no exception.

But, in fact, the country that has the most valid claim to the islands is neither Argentina nor England: it's France!  France established a colony at Port St. Louis, on East Falkland's Berkeley Sound coast in 1764, two years before the English. The French name Îles Malouines was given to the islands – malouin being the adjective for the Breton port of Saint-Malo. The Spanish name Islas Malvinas is a translation of the French name.

Source: History of the Falkland Islands

I'd love nothing better than to see France renew its valid claim to the Falklands. Oops! The Malvinas. Oops! the Malouines.  That would really be fun, especially now that we know that millions of barrels of oil may lie underneath  the Continental Shelf surrounding the islands.

Jagor