In the final part of its special series on Veterans, Al Jazeera visited Argentina and found that for both politicians and former soldiers alike the Falklands, or the Malvinas as they are known, remain an obsession. During a three-week strike by soy farmers and the first real crisis of her presidency, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the Argentinian president, reacted as many of her predecessors have when faced with trouble – she staked her country's claims to the Falklands islands. "The sovereign claim to the Malvinas Islands [as they are known to Argentineans] is inalienable," de Kirchner said on April 2, during a speech to mark the 26th anniversary of a war that lasted 74 days and cost 649 Argentinean lives. Although the conflict ended in a humiliating defeat for Argentina more than a quarter of a century ago, the Malvinas have never left the public consciousness and sovereignty remains an article of faith for every president, whether they are from the left or right. One prominent Argentinean writer once said the conflict on the windswept islands, 500km from the Argentinean mainland and home to 3,000 British citizens, was akin to "two bald men fighting over a comb". However the war was anything but pointless to the men who fought in it.