Fidel: The Real Big Man

[Don1]

Clarification

normally, i agree with you... not sure you are entirely accurate here... let me also state that i am a supporter of fidel castro's motive for the revolution...

where i disagree with you is your presumption that the usa could not defeat cuba or castro... and its because of cuba and castro's 'strength' why the regime is able to survive for 50 years in the us backyard... thats a bit simplistic...

I never said or meant to imply that the US "could not" defeat Castro...... of course they could! However the did not! That was my point.

The US was/is unwilling to spend the political capital and commit the 300,000+ troops necessary to subdue Cuba.

[Don1]

Geo-Politicis - my take

pure speculation on my part, but they had strength for grenada, panama and haiti....and even further afield iraq and afghanistan.

cuba continues to wield a big stick despite the fact the cold war is over because of china.....usa DARES not .... it's not like they don't want to...look a chile and allende....not to mention the assassination plots involving the cia and the mafia..

what makes cuba so different?

When the CIA fails to achieve regime change, the US, like most empires undertakes military action/invasion only under certain conditions:

1. To secure/appropriate natural resources located in other countries - Iraq
2. To establish military bases-- that's a corollary of #1.
3. To punish other regimes or deter/impress potential adversaries - Grenada
4. To install friendly regimes--- that's a corollary of 1,2,3 & 5. - eg. Panama
5. Remove regimes deemed to operate contrary to their economic or political goals & establish regional control/influence - Vietnam, Korea
6. To secure a world order that operates in their interest - WW1 & WW2 - 1,2,3,4,5.

They will hesitate or be deterred from conducting military action directly when:

1. Their cities may be incinerated in response and the government decapitated.
2. There are no strategic resources worth stealing
3. The political, diplomatic and economic cost is not worth the perceived benefits ... it's always a calculus.

Cuba's case (lack of more muscular military action) is a combination of 2 and 3 above.
China is NOT a strategic ally of Cuba - they have friendly relations. There is no way that China is going to war with the US (or even willing to endanger its economic interests) over anything the US chooses to do with Cuba ... a strong diplomatic note or demarche and a negative UN vote is the max one might see.

[Muadib]

Castro was willing to sacrifice millions of his people for his 'principles'.. decades under embargo

It takes a strong man to do that... Saddam was the same.. strong man.

[Willi]

Bingo!!!

Take a seat at the head of the class.

It is hard for people to understand this.

[Gamma]

not so sure about...if the us goes to war with cuba...florida might not exist for too long.

[Baddaz]

interesting take... from what i have gathered over the years, i have to agree with your take...

2. There are no strategic resources worth stealing
3. The political, diplomatic and economic cost is not worth the perceived benefits ... it's always a calculus.

the above applies to cuba especially... after the failed attempts on castro's life, the usa did not want to risk the politicla and diplomatic fallout from another attempt at killing castro and a war with cuba...

yesterday i got sidetracked from responding to gamma about china as a deterrent to the us going after cuba... you made the point for me...

[Don1]

interesting take... from what i have gathered over the years, i have to agree with your take...

2. There are no strategic resources worth stealing
3. The political, diplomatic and economic cost is not worth the perceived benefits ... it's always a calculus.

the above applies to cuba especially... after the failed attempts on castro's life, the usa did not want to risk the politicla and diplomatic fallout from another attempt at killing castro and a war with cuba...

yesterday i got sidetracked from responding to gamma about china as a deterrent to the us going after cuba... you made the point for me...

yes. if Cuba had big oil reserves we would not be having this discussion and Castro would have been long ago removed.

[Karl]

US farm sales to Cuba surge: At highest level since 2000

US farm sales to Cuba surge: At highest level since 2000
published: Saturday | February 23, 2008

Sales of American farm goods to Cuba surged in 2007 to their highest annual total in the seven years since the communist-run nation began buying the products in 2001, a US trade group said Friday.

Cuba bought US$437.5 million (€297.2 million currently) in US food and other agricultural goods in 2007, making the island America's 37th largest trading partner last year, the New York-based US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said in a regular report.

Direct sales of US farm goods to Cuba lagged over the two previous years, to US$340.4 million (€258 million) in 2006 and US$350.2 million (€296 million) in 2005, said the council, which tracks trade between the two countries.

US$600 million in goods
The Cuban government reported last month it bought US$600 million (€407.7 million) in goods from US companies in 2007, including costs for transportation, banking and other related charges.
The US council counts only the price of the goods.

Washington's nearly 50-year-old embargo prohibits almost all US trade with the island. But a US law passed in 2000 allows American companies to sell food and agricultural products directly to Cuba on a cash basis.

Cuban authorities initially refused to buy any American goods under the law, complaining about the cash-only restriction. But they changed course after a hurricane struck the island in late 2001 and bought goods to replace depleted food reserves. - AP

[Gamma]

trading partner?

[Karl]

Fidel finally opts for pension

Fidel finally opts for pension
KEEBLE McFARLANE
Saturday, February 23, 2008


This is not how a dictatorship is supposed to work. According to tradition, dictators die in office, as Stalin, Mao, Franco and Tito did. Or they are removed violently, as in the cases of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Nicolae Ceaucescu in Romania and Samuel Doe in Liberia.
KEEBLE McFARLANE

Sometimes, they are elbowed aside by more ambitious colleagues, as happened when Nikita Khrushchov outmanoeuvred his colleague Nikolai Bulganin for the top office in the old Soviet Union or even more viciously, by Saddam Hussein as he laid waste through the ranks of the Ba'ath Party as he clawed his way to the presidency of Iraq from the late 1960s on.

Many people were surprised when word came early on Tuesday morning that Fidel Castro was giving up as head of the government he brought to power 49 years ago. Twenty months ago there was even more startling news - Fidel had relinquished power to his brother (and brother-in-arms), Raúl, after undergoing a serious abdominal operation. Since then he has not appeared in public and there's been no official word about the exact nature of his illness. But his presence has been acknowledged by a constant stream of "reflections" he has written, and by periodic video appearances with visitors such as Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Lula da Silva of Brazil.

He had to make the announcement this week because there was an election last month for a new National Assembly, and that body begins sitting tomorrow. The first order of business is to choose the State Council, the president of which is the country's head of state. Castro's months of recuperation and reflection have shown him definitely that after a lifetime of robust good health and considerable energy, he is no longer up to the physical demands of the job. And, crafty old tactician that he is, he calculated that by lying low and letting his associates get on with the job, he was preparing his compatriots for the inevitable day when he would no longer be driving the bus.

Observers generally assume that the assembly will formally choose Raúl for the job, but even that is not a certainty. They could instead select the quiet, competent technocrat, Vice-President Carlos Lage Dávila, who is in his 50s, or even the foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque who is a decade younger. Anyway, it doesn't matter whom they choose, since the Cuban leadership is by no means monolithic and is determined to ease the country's constricted economic performance.

They have watched the disorder and chaos which racked Russia after the implosion of the Soviet Union, while China has been bursting out with exponential economic growth and the concomitant alterations to its social structure. Above all, they want a gradual and orderly transition from the rigid society they have had for years to a more free and open one. Only the most rabid anti-Castro faction in the United States could want anything else.

Cubans have taken the news of his retirement in their stride, and even the Miami exiles have been largely subdued in their reaction. There have been the usual noises, to be sure, with George Bush setting the tone on his whip-round in Africa. "This transition ought to lead to free and fair elections. And I mean free and I mean fair," trumpeted the man who was installed in the White House courtesy of dubious voting practices in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere, cemented by a tame Supreme Court.

Castro's revolution is one of five remarkable ones to have taken place in the Western Hemisphere. The first was by a bunch of fledgling British colonies in North America which shook off the stifling constraints of a colonial master 231 years ago and is still a work in progress. Then there was Haiti, where enslaved Africans overthrew the French colonial bosses and their local land-owning representatives just over 200 years ago, only to be cut off at the knees by France and, of all people, the Americans. The Mexican revolution began almost a century ago, and lasted for 30 years before things settled down.

This one wrested power and economic advantage from the elites and distributed it to the emerging middle classes, labour groups and urban dwellers. It even took on the powerful Roman Catholic church, which objected to many of the aims of the revolution. And while Castro and his comrades cooled their heels behind bars after their disastrous attack on a military barracks in Santiago, the United States stifled a progressive revolution in nearby Guatemala by Jácobo Arbenz Guzmán, beginning an orgy of repression, slaughter and misery.

Castro's revolution is based largely on the lessons of Cuba's history and its struggles since the mid-19th century to throw off the Spanish colonial yoke. It echoes the sentiments of social justice, radicalism and nationalism as expounded by the poet, philosopher and revolutionary, Jose Martí. Even as Spain's grasp on the island loosened, that of its powerful neighbour, the United States, grew firmer.

The US, rebounding after its extremely costly civil war, hijacked Cuba's war for independence and supplanted Spain as the dominant power. Castro is a direct product of its arrogant, patriarchal stance towards Cuba, which has grown stronger and more entrenched in the half-century since, complicated by the strident voices of the large and influential exile community in Miami and elsewhere.

Nine presidents have done their utmost to try to get rid of Castro, but every action has succeeded only in being totally counterproductive. Shortly after Raúl took over as acting president, he offered to open dialogue with the US.

Washington responded with its usual argument that it can't talk to anybody from a government led by the Castro brothers and that the US is willing to talk to Cuba only after it holds free elections, etc, etc. But the US now enjoys good relations with China and Vietnam, both of which it adamantly refused to deal with for years. Just recently we were treated to pictures of George Bush holding hands with the doddery leader of one of the world's bastions of democracy, free speech and human rights, Saudi Arabia. We heard no demands here, nor upon other allies such as Kuwait and Egypt.

Whatever changes happen in Cuba have to be initiated and managed by Cubans, and by no one else. Outsiders can urge them to open up, and in fact, have been doing so, but quietly and respectfully, not as adult to rebellious teenager, as is the habit in Washington. Otherwise, the entire history of the past century will have been flushed down the drain.

keeble.mack@sympatico.ca

[Karl]

History will absolve Castro

History will absolve Castro
published: Saturday | February 23, 2008



Hartley Neita

Had he not resigned this week, next year would have been the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro's role as leader of the Cuban government and people.

His decision to step down was expected. He had been away from the public eye for almost two years following an operation and had ceded power to his brother Raul.

He is still alive and kicking. Yet the eulogies have begun.

Under his leadership, Cuba has achieved more positives during his 50 years at the helm, than has Jamaica. Shortly after getting rid of dictator Fulgencio Batista, he launched a literacy programme. Today, his country is not only fully literate but most Cubans speak several languages. We, too, speak many - various corruptions of English (a patois, Rastafarian and dancehall), none of which can truly be understood beyond our sea coast. We launched a literacy programme, which is still a-borning.

For many years, every main town in Cuba has had a university. It is only in the past few years that we have increased our own which was started in the 1940s. They have more trained doctors than we can only dream of for here. They have even trained many of our doctors. And they are first class. They also sent doctors to help man our hospitals and we chased them away.

promises
They sent troops to get rid of South Africa's apartheid army from Angola. We promised to send troops over and over. And except for a peace-keeping police team, our promises were just words.

They have quietly built a tourist industry which has been thriving without American visitors. We lost that battle.

They have Chevrolets, Buicks, Pontiacs, Studebakers, Lincolns and other American cars made before 1950 and which are in immaculate condition today,

Education is free. Not just tuition, but all aspects of education. We are just about to return to free tuition.

Health care is free. We are about to introduce this here.

There are mini-stadiums in every main town. We are now beginning to enjoy this facility in communities in the Corporate Area and in one or two rural areas. And like us, their sportsmen and women have been world beaters.

They have built mini dams for us and constructed schools as gifts. They have done these things because, despite the United States, they believe they are part of the world community and the population of the world are their brothers and sisters.

light bulbs
They gave us energy-saving electric light bulbs, and the programme was bungled by the politicians and civil servants. I have not heard of a similar bungling in Cuba.

Yes, there have been negatives. Human rights as defined by us have a different meaning in their culture. Dissidents are regarded as enemies of the State and are locked up. They have nationalised almost all private businesses and seized property owned by US citizens who are not allowed by their government to travel there, or are long since dead.

If they had been given a chance and not subjected to the US ban on exports, other than food and medicine; and had the US not banned Cuban imports and allowed US citizens to enjoy vacations in the island, the experiences of the Cuban people might well have been different.
On the whole, I think, history will absolve Castro. The majority of Cubans believe so. The comparative few who are now dancing with joy in Miami at his exit from the world stage will always hate him and wish his early death.

[Gamma]

in my estimation he's already been absolved.

[Karl]

in my estimation he's already been absolved.

Agree 100%!

[Muadib]

The man measuring Cuba progress in relation to ours ???

LOL !!

We are the laughing stock of the region since 1972... poor choice.

Is only Haiti.. barely.. woulda lose dat battle.

Who wi ?