In my many wanderings on mercopress and others and my long term following of the Falklands issue, I have come to find the true bizarre reality of Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the islands and the that the claim itself is riddled with contradictions, which are never ever addressed by anyone in Argentina, or indeed the other Latin American states who lavishly brown nose Argentina over this issue without any logical questioning of the facts Argentina presents, in fact very few people hit on to these contradictions, and probably even fewer (even the British and Falklands govts) make it into a means to challenge Argentine reasoning for its claim.
That is why I have set up this series of posts, Argie contradictions of note with the aim of listing and disseminating the most glaring and bizarre contradictions Argentina and Argentinians have come up with over the years, in the vain hope that people will read them and start to question in much greater detail the rational and lapses of logic that appear to drive the reasoning behind Argentina's claim and obviously just show case how bizarre the claim really is and how tainted it is with extremist nationalism, rather than anything benign. I hope to try and be consistent on this front, I can envisage certain occasions where contradictions of note will overlap with my other post series Argie Myths, however this shouldn't happen to often.
So I shall begin with my most favorite contradiction at the minute, that of the very popular slogan in Argentina and amongst ardent Malvinist's:
"The Malvinas, were, are and will be Argentinian"
The origins of said slogan come from the Falklands war and started appearing on various TV shows at the end of the program with the playing of the national anthem. As it happened it became infectious and appeared just about everywhere. Even with the conclusion of the war, like with many habits Argentina acquired from that conflict, this phrase has been very hard to shake off, and nobody has really questioned it glaringly obvious insulting contradictions of logic, they just say, and take it as a indisputable matter of fact.
In fact the whole slogan contradicts itself so obviously, it beggars belief as to why nobody has stood up in Argentina and said "wait a minute here!".
The first part of the phrase "were Argentine" states that the islands were Argentine, in fact as a standalone phrase, this could be argued as fact to an extent, since the country before Argentina, the United Provinces of Rio Plata, briefly for a few months had limited control of the islands.
However it is the second statement "are Argentine" where logic starts to unravel spectacularly, although at the time of the creation of this slogan it was indeed fact, since Argentina was occupying the islands, and thus at least on a temporary basis they were Argentine, it is however the continual use of this phrase so long after the war, that it falls flat on its arse.
The present tense (are) contradicts itself spectacularly with the past tense (were), the past tense implies that the islands were once possessed by Argentina, but not anymore, but then suddenly an amazing leap of logic occurs and the islands have now suddenly become a present possession of Argentina and ignoring the glaringly obvious, that the islands are currently under de-facto British sovereignty.
The final Coup de Grace in this sorry tale is the use of the future tense (will be) as this then implies that Argentina does not currently posses the islands, and did not posses them, and thus possession is an aspiration which will be achieved in the future, indeed yet another amazing leap of logic which could probably only be physically achieved within the realms of Dr Who.
So thus how can Argentina have possessed something, which it currently posses (but does not) but yet in the future will acquire possession of it?
It seems that with such a baffling train of logic that is physically impossible and contradicts the reallity of the situation, such an idea in Argentina can only be confined entirely to the realm of meta-physics.
But it also perfectly demonstrates the bizarre contradictions of Argentina's claim, and also how truly dangerous the claim is, as Carlos Escudes a controversial political theorist in Argentina wrote (controversial because he is one of few Argentinians to question the plausibility and legality of Argentina's irredentist claim):
"Despite the obvious contradictions of this slogan, nobody has challenged or even questioned its meaning, because in Argentina we are taught from birth that the claim is unquestionable, even when faced with such obvious contradictions, because it involves the sacred Malvinas, it therefore cannot be questioned. Even if the govt declared something as outrageous as the Malvinas being covered in lush forests, running with milk and honey and that they were a gift from god to Argentina, people would still not question it, because it involves that which cannot be questioned"
So how may I ask are the UK and others meant to challenge a claim which is so unquestionable that even the most bizarre ideas about the islands cannot be questioned, a claim which nationalist doctrine, cannot be questioned, no matter how bizarre and contradictory it may appear. Change in the Argentine mindset appears to be critically needed, as do far more robust challenges publicly on the international stage, by the UK and the Falklands, identifying the illogical manner and contradictions by which Argentina presents its claim.
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