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No Falklander in their right mind would want to be associated with such an undeveloping country. So Mrs Kirchner is left with only bellicose rhetoric and the desire that the rattling of her sabre drowns the grumbling of her people. She hopes that the Malvinas can save her, much as the Falklands saved Margaret Thatcher from domestic unpopularity. Papers released under the 30-year-rule reveal Mrs Thatcher "never, never expected the Argentines to invade the Falklands head-on. It was such a stupid thing to do". But stupid things are so much a part of the Kirchner political lexicon that it is entirely possible a plane full of troops or flag-waving stuntmen might yet be dispatched by Buenos Aires.