Britain Used Spy Team to Shape Latin American Public Opinion on Falklands

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4. What prevented the possibility of another such war

was Argentine democracy itself, since no elected Argentine government has or would put their men and women in uniform through something that harebrained and pointless.

This, of course, is more than we could say for certain other elected governments; indeed, it was a GOP-supported dictatorship that invaded the islands in 1982 (Reagan's National Security Adviser, Richard Allen, described Galtieri -who ordered the invasion- as "a magnificent general&quot .

Since they recovered their democratic institutions in 1983, Argentina's position on this dispute has been clear: the claim stands, but will be achieved by way of negotiations or not at all. Personally, I think Argentina will eventually recover the Falklands not as much by negotiations; but by policy changes in the U.K. itself, whose future Prime Ministers will be increasingly unwilling to squander £200 million ($300 million) a year in welfare for and "defense" of the Falklands when Britain herself has mounting social problems and other important underfunded issues at home.