On Sunday a huge parade was held in London to celebrate the Falklands "victory", 25 years ago. Tribute was paid to the courage of the British forces and their "great expertise" in winning a war in hostile conditions 8,000 miles away.

As if the odds were not always in favour of wealthy, developed Britain, with its well-equipped professional military, against the unwilling conscripts of Argentina's Third World army.

This ceremony, and warmonger Thatcher's reception (with cheers) did however prove one thing. That British jingoism is alive and well. Tony Blair had already "saluted the courage" of Thatcher in deciding to send British forces to reclaim the islands.

The 255 British soldiers and sailors, the 3 Falkland islanders and the 689 Argentinians who died as a result of Thatcher's "courage" cannot be summoned in judgement over this war, of course.

Indeed, in comparison to the number of British troops killed so far during three years of Blair's war in Iraq - "only" 151 - the Falklands' death toll says a lot about the ferocity of that conflict - which lasted for less than 3 months. Needless to say, during Sunday's ceremony, the many more young Argentinian dead were scarcely mentioned.

We should recall what this war was really about. Because contrary to the official version, it had nothing to do with protecting the rights of the Falkland 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 the Atlantic ocean actually, by rights and by geography, belonged to Argentina.

Thatcher used this 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 and horrific Falklands carnage will somehow give his Iraq catastrophe some kind of credibility. But it will not.