British/Argentinian relationships have normally been very good, in fact Argentinian middle classes were great anglophiles, while small groups of British still live in Argentina.

Given that the Hunta in Argentina was in trouble it fits perfectly into my "distraction" principle.

It is hard, as a Brit, to see the conflict as avoidable after the invasion, but I understand you may have different opinions. IMO The American ambassador to the UN was clearly an idiot and as much a friend of the UK as the revolting Joe Kennedy.

nytraveler - you say:
"it took almost an hour to get back into Spain - they hauled all the luggage out of our car, shifted the back seat to check underneath and then used mirrors on the bottom of the car - I guess checking for drugs or stowaways."

The only drugs that are smuggled across the Gibraltar/Spain border are being smuggled FROM Spain INTO Gibraltar. (To meet small local demand).

No drugs smuggler would be daft enough to smuggle drugs into Gibraltar to supply elsewhere, as you would only have to smuggle them out again - across a far more tightly controlled border.

Compare that to the long unguarded coastline of Spain - sitting just a short hop from Morocco.

There was a problem a few years ago where some drugs smugglers going from Morocco to Spain would throw their cargo overboard and race into Gibraltar waters if pursued by Spanish police.
- As Madrid instructed their law enfacement not to cooperate with Gibraltar law enforcement, they hoped to escape prosecution, as they had done noting wrong in Gibraltar waters.

To combat this, Gibraltar tactically decided to make RHIBs (Rigid hull inflatable boats) - the type of craft favoured by the smugglers from morocco to spain as it can land on beaches - a prohibited import in Gibraltar, so they could at least be prosecuted for that.

Similarly people - there is not people smuggling from Gibraltar to Spain. No person would try to enter Spain from Gibraltar. Any people trying to move about illegally would land on the unguarded Spanish coast - and from there have access to the entire Schengen border free area. Rather than land in 3.5 square miles and stick out like a sore thumb, and need to cross a border or manage to get on a plane to get anywhere else.

The only things smuggled from Gibraltar to Spain are cigarettes. Due to the difference in duty. But the fight against this is intelligence lead. The mirrors business you describe and searching of clearly tourist vehicles is nothing more than political posturing to try to harass and apply pressure to Gibraltar by jeopardising tourist trade. (Ironically the people it affects most actually live in Spain! - 10 thousand people cross from Spain to Gibraltar each day to go to work.)

Well it was irritating enough to us that we would never go again - not that we would anyway given the lack of things to do and that the shops seem mostly British - not what we want in Spain.

"not what we want in Spain" But it isn't Spain, that's the whole point.