You'd think that by now we'd have figured out how the "special relationship" between the UK and the US works. I mean, it's not as though the US rushed to our side in either of the two world wars, and Conress made sure we paid the full price for all the wartime aid we received. So, just because we've fought alonsgide the US in two of their misbegotten wars over the past decade, we surely shouldn't be so naive as to expect that they might in any way support us now that Argentina is sabre-rattling again over the Falklands.
I have no time at all for colonialism. It's good that we gave back Hong Kong, and I'd be more than happy to see Gibraltar returned to Spain, or for that matter Ireland reunified. However, it has to be said that Argentina's claim to the Falklands is tenuous in the extreme. Before Britain finally established a proper settlement on the islands in 1833, nobody had spent any more time there than it took to plant a ceremonial flag. The archipelago is not even that close to the Argentine mainland, so it's hardly surprising that it's never in any meaningful sense formed part of Argentina, either politically or economically.
So it's downright nauseating to see Hillary Clinton making time for two hours of talks and well-photograped air-kissing with President Kerchner, and hinting heavily that the UK should agree to talks on the sovereignty of the islands. God forgive me for even thinking such a thing, but Washington's attitude couldn't be in any way connected to the possibility that there's rather a lot of oil in the vicinity, could it?
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