Why did the war happen?
As the famous Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once said “war is merely the continuation of politics by other means”. Like many others, this war was a result of failed diplomacy. The matter of the Falklands’ sovereignty has been a political hot potato for many years – no government has shown a will to resolve the situation because as soon as a change of ownership is mentioned to the islanders, they create a big noise. The majority do not want to become Argeninians and probably never will. It is generally accepted (at least outside Argentina) that the war occoured at that particular time because of a number of factors. Most significantly these included: • the fact that the Argentine military junta expected the war to improve their failing popularity • the UK had (inadvertently) sent signals to the world indicating they were withdrawing the ‘Falklands guard ship’ HMS Endurance and therefore had no intention of defending the Falklands militarily (although an SSN was always s
