On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War, Tony Blair has "saluted the courage" of Thatcher in deciding to send British forces to reclaim the islands for "Britain".

The 255 British soldiers and sailors, the 3 Falkland islanders and the 649 Argentinians who died as a result of Thatcher's "courage" cannot be summoned in judgement over this war, of course.

Indeed, in comparison to 136 British troops killed so far over 3 years of Blair's war in Iraq, the Falklands' death toll says a lot about the ferocity of that conflict which lasted only 3 months.

Contrary to the official version, the Falklands war had nothing to do with protecting the rights of the islanders. Thatcher did not give a damn about them.

This war was primarily aimed at demonstrating - with the full backing of the USA and Ronald Reagan - that no country should dare to challenge the rule and "world order" of the rich imperialist powers. Not even if, as was the case with the Falklands, these few rocks in Atlantic ocean actually, by rights and by geography, belonged to Argentina. Anyway, victory against Galtieri's weak forces was assured.

Thatcher used the war to "regain" not only these wind-swept islands, where sheep and penguins outnumber people (who were and are dependent on the Argentinian mainland anyway), but to regain her political advantage at home. And she was helped by a supine political "opposition" and jingoistic media, which was banned from reporting on the real horrors of this absurd war at the time.

Today, Blair no doubt wishes that the glorification of the pointless Falklands carnage will somehow give his Iraq catastrophe some kind of credibility. But it cannot and will not.