Hitch puts the British defense of the Faulklands into historical perspective. Apparently the US (Sec. of Def. Haig) gave the Argentinians tacit approval to invade on the assumption that Britain wouldn't bother defending such a small area half -way around the world. Well, Thatcher thought differently and invaded.
At the time most in the US thought it was pretty meaningless in the scheme of things, but the Argentinians that invaded were the precursors to the Contras, and Britain's actions were one of the main reasons the Reagan administration had to start trading hostages for arms with Iran to finance the Contras. The irony being that Thatcher's bellicosity almost brought down her hero Reagan.
(Of course in our present circumstance, with Iran's mullah influence spreading toward Mecca, the wisdom of this strategy seems even more misguided, but the US's strategy in foreign policy, especially the Middle East, seems replete with decisions that later turned out to cause us much more grief than the original problem.)
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