If the Malvinas/Falklands War never made any sense to you...

...don't feel bad. It was never reported very well in the press, especially the Yanqui and British press. So if it all looked to you like it did to Borges, let's take a look at a quiet little development in the 175 year old, ongoing conflict... without the anglo-centric cheerleading regarding that "splendid little war."

BBC: The UK is looking to claim sovereignty over a large area of the remote seabed off Antarctica.

If you are a nationality other than Argentinean, Chilean, British, Australian, French, Norwegian, New Zealandian, or Nazi German ...claims to pieces of the Antarctic may strike you as strange. No other countries recognize antarctic territorial claims, they just sort of ignore them.

And the claims are easy to ignore. There has never been a permanent population on Antarctica and the only military operations allowed are of the peaceful research type.

Some claims make a little more sense than others. The proximity of Argentina, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand tends to lend a bit of weight. Other claims simply smack of a colonialism that is supposed to be dead by various treaties.

Back to the Malvinas/Falkands.

If the British reaction to the Argentine military 25 years ago surprised you (before the TV screen filled up with Jacks and Spangles), the BBC story will help explain why the Royal Navy and Marines sailed to the other side of the globe, during an economic recession, to rescue a lot of sheep and some people that the Crown was in the middle of negotiating away.

Had Argentina been successful in repelling the Brits by force (everybody knows who won that game... but few remember that it went into "double-overtime"), British claims to Antarctica would have been in big trouble. The Malvinas and a scattering of other islands in the South Atlantic are all tied into territorial claims to the continent and the seabed surrounding it.

Currently, international treaties prohibit all nations from mining and oil/gas extraction.

"British Antarctica is one of a number (of claims) being prepared by the Foreign Office, a spokeswoman said.

Even if granted, those rights would not allow Britain to contravene the treaty that prohibits oil and gas tapping under the seabed.

The spokeswoman labelled the move "a safeguard for the future."

Sí, Juan. Less than 10 years ago, oil sold for a little more than $10/barrel. Today, it is reaching for $90. The British may simply be hoping that the treaty dissolves diplomatically so that BP can get to drillin' ...or the treaty might just slip in the shower like the multiple treaties the Brits signed regarding Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas (Que chicagueños son los britanicos, eh?)

But with those kinds of prices, you can afford to throw a little muscle around (Hey! You might even consider invading and occupying several sovereign middle-eastern countries that never lifted a finger against you!)

But seriously, I ask you, if there's oil down there in that god-forsaken pie wedge... who do you think it belongs to? Don't forget to also tell me why your heart and mind tells you that.