Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina's finest writer, dismissed the Falklands War of 1982 as "two bald men fighting over a comb," but it killed almost a thousand British and Argentine soldiers, sailors and airmen anyway. So what would happen if the bald men started fighting over something really valuable, like oil?
A deep-sea drilling rig arrived this week from Scotland and has started searching for oil and gas in the North Falkland basin, about 150 km north of the islands. Optimistic predictions suggest that there are up to 60 billion barrels of oil to be found around the Falklands. There might also be not very much at all — but Argentina has begun issuing warnings and veiled threats again.
This may only be bluster, but Argentina has claimed the islands, which it calls the Islas Malvinas, for almost two centuries. The local population are all English-speakers, mainly of British descent, and back in 1982 the islands' economy was based almost entirely on sheep. The Falklands had no value — but Argentina invaded anyway, because the military regime in Buenos Aires needed a boost in popularity and it looked like an easy win.