Why didn't we send the super-secret-kitty force in forty years ago to solve this?



I got yer 'revolucion' right here, Fidel . . .

Diga "Hola" a mi pequeño amigo.

~Zoo

There is speculation in the Cuban American community that the "resignation" was actually penned by Raul  - since Fidel kicked the bucket long ago.

Francisco Franco's condidtdion is unchanged.......he is still dead.

Somehow I doubt he's kicked it yet but it probably won't be long now.

Well, to add my two cents I disagree with this-

"Eventually Cuba will have to change if it is to survive. Oppressed people are not productive people and for Cuba's economy to grow and flourish a certain level of openness must be introduced there. Fidel's stepping down may be a very early first step towards Cuba's eventual turn around."

My apologies as I am going to rant for a bit now-

Remember the reason for Cuba's revolution was not because the evil reds wanted to come in and take everyone's freedom and TV set away. It was because the country was being raped by U.S corporations and there was a strong-man dictator in power who kept the boot of the army on the neck of the people, and gave said corporations everything they wanted. They could pay their workers dirt, demand 16 hour work days and take 100 % of their profits out of the country, so long as they threw a little grease at the resident dictator to keep him and his friends happy.

It was precisely this kind of economic "growth" that has occurred in many developing nations around the world, and it has only resulted in making these countries worse, not better. What you end up with is a nation of barrios and slums, where most of the population are "disposable" human labor, and a very small number of very wealthy elite run the show. These people also tend to be good friends or family of the resident dictator, who uses the military to keep the disposable people (his own citizens) in line while he gladly accepts the kickbacks from the big business that is exploiting his own country and people.

Whenever a nation has tried to buck this trend of exploitation the idea is that the country has to be made an example of- the reason why so many Cubans are poor isn't because they are oppressed by their leader but because of the economic sanctions imposed on a largely international scale by the U.S. And despite it, they still have a better healthcare system that's free!

The U.S has at every turn tried to demonize Cuba as an oppressed country ruled by a mad-man backwards dictator. Well I tell you, there are men who have sat in the oval office who are far more deserving of the title "monster" than senor Castro ever will be!

Yeah. Ok. I guess the fact that Cuba has trade relations with numerous countries including China ($2 billion) and Venezuela ($7 billion) is why the people in Cuba live in abject poverty. Just because the US doesn't trade with them doesn't mean they have no trade. Hell I can cross the border into Canada and buy Cuban products.

Go peddle your bullshit somewhere else, I'm not buying.

You really need to get over your hatred, as that will always turn a potentially good well reasoned response into just another pablum of propaganda rhetoric.

And your look into past history is good, but you then found yourself living half to a full century ago instead of today, and there it died.

I will leave you with this final fact.  I know that will get in the way of your hatred, but nevertheless it must be pointed out.

The demonization of fidel has not been going on by the occupants of the oval office - they are just he mouth pieces of the voice of that demonization.  And the voice is the ex-patriots.  And if you are going to condemn those who actually lived there for speaking out against fidel (and risking their lives to do so - something neither you nor I have ever done, nor probably ever will), then there is no use in discussing it with you period.

I think this kind of shortsighted policy or response will not serve the interest either of USA or Cuba. The Cubans in Miami cannot hold the US policy toward Cuba hostage to their own prejudices. I agree that Cuba could allow a lot more political freedom, but the fact remains that Fidel Castro has tranformed a poverty striken American "colony" run by Batista into a weffare state. It is sobering to think that at a time when American politicians of every hue and stripe are taliking about refornming the Health Care for the citizens, a poor country like Cuba has set a model for extending health and social services to all and insoite of the crippling American embargo.

Cuba was sugar based economy and with the collapse of the sugar market in the USSR, Fidel Castro has diversiofied into a successful service based economy which provides for its people. Do you know, for example, the child mortality figures for Cuba is better than that of the USA.

I think for too long Cuba has been villified for being a success in terms of an example for the people of the region, and Fidel Castro has survived 10 US presidents and countless attempts to kill or injure him.

Let Cuba be itself and USA will understand that Castro's "Revolution" was essentially a nationalist revolution and is not an exportable commodity.

Yeah sure. Tell that to the people in Cuba who go to bed hungry. In a word, bullshit.

Well this is not true. Cuba has eradicated hunger from its midst and the health care is even by European standards very good. I think freedom of the press and expression can be permitted but that is for the Cubans to decide.

That's funny, as I live in Florida I happen to know a good many Cubans who have escaped to the US (many recently) and they tell a very different story. I'll choose to believe the ones who actually lived there as opposed to a proven anti-American blogger with questionable motives and facts who has probably never set foot in Cuba or met any Cubans who have lived there in recent years.