Yes, the people of the Falkland Islands are voting on their future:
On Sunday and Monday, the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, a wind-swept, sparsely populated archipelago that was a final way station for early 20th-century explorers like Ernest Shackleton en route to the icy wastes of Antarctica, will go to the polls in a referendum on the islands’ future.
How can one deny the obvious democracy taking place? Denial with a dose of a shudder at the implications, of course:
The Argentine foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, calling the islanders “settlers,” has been equally blunt. “The Falkland Islanders do not exist,” he has said.
They "do not exist." They are "disappeared" in plain sight. I wonder why so few will think the alternative to British rule is joining the mainland?
The Obama administration does not back Britain in their claims. It is a bit misleading to say that this is the same as the Reagan administration's position. One, recall that in the early 1980s we were in intense competition with the Soviet Union over the future of Latin America. We didn't want to throw the region to Moscow by openly siding with Britain. And two, we did quietly support the British with weapons and logistics. And we would have done more, if needed:
Mr Reagan would have loaned Britain the use of the amphibious warship USS Iwo Jima should harm have come to either HMS Invincible or HMS Hermes, which the Royal Navy had deployed to defend the islands from Argentinian forces.
The amphibious carrier would have functioned just like the light British carriers. Really, if we were actually so awful to Britain during that war as some allege, why were Reagan and Thatcher so close after?
Good luck with the French being as generous with the carrier they are supposed to share with Britain. Just hope the French overseas territories minister isn't the one making the call. He's probably the only one in the French government with views like that, right?
Make sure France has enough contracts for oil exploration around the Falklands, just in case.
