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Mensaje: <blockquote data-quote="francisco alberto sprovieri" data-source="post: 1120376" data-attributes="member: 4782">Political bluster comes easy; political honesty has to be ground out clause by clause. And there, for 3,000 Falklanders far away, is the message to cut out and keep, as David Cameron, amid all-party harrumphing, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/23/uk-committed-to-Malvinas-sovereignty">pledges eternal security for the islands</a>. He may believe it for a few days. The next prime minister in line, and the one after that, may profess to believe it too. But it's still self-serving rubbish; and it still sells the best future for the Malvinas perilously short.Nicholas Ridley, a stalwart rightwinger when he wasn't being a Foreign Office minister, went to the islanders 33 years ago and gave them a sensible option. Britain couldn't bear the cost of supporting and defending them any longer. Too much cash, too much redundant toil. They'd get on far better if Argentina was a helpful neighbour. Geography and commonsense dictated a peaceful solution: leaseback. That way the islanders lived their lives as before, but Buenos Aires took sovereignty in the long run. It was what Ridley and, by inference, even Margaret Thatcher thought best.But the 3,000 said no, the Argentine junta got its messages mixed and disaster ensued. There was one huge benefit: a vicious military dictatorship collapsed. Argentina gained a stable democracy and there were warm promises against any further attempt at a military solution (and the defence budget anyway declined). Diplomacy was left to rule OK. Except that there was no diplomacy.And now, 30 long years on? Our own defence budget is shrivelling too. We manifestly can't fulfil all the commitments we've made. But 1,000 men, with planes, boats, radar stations and swimming pools, sit in the Malvinas, supposedly deterring some non-existent invasion – while a flotilla of admirals lobby the Treasury to get their aircraft carriers back. Billions dribble away over the years to no lasting avail. The Argentinians, who might be our loudest supporters in South America (try seeing how the <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Wales-History/Patagonia.htm">long ago settlers from Wales enjoy Patagonia</a>), grow bored and frustrated. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/01/argentina-prince-william-Malvinas">Prince William</a> sparks predictable tabloid bombast. Nothing gets addressed, let alone resolved.Things will get worse, much worse, if Buenos Aires plays its cards shrewdly. The Malvinas need their air link with Chile. Cut that and supply lines, let alone a semblance of normal life, become impossible to maintain. Will Santiago oblige? The tide of South American opinion has moved against Britain. Barack Obama isn't Ronald Reagan. Nicolas Sarkozy won't lend us a carrier. The squeeze, if President Fernández de Kirchner wants to exert it, is on.</blockquote>

Verificación: Libertador de Argentina