Fidel Castro is Dead

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Not a fan of his politics, but got to hand it to him for his tenacity, bouncing back from prison to his rise in power and lasting as long as he did, they don't make them like that anymore.

Can't think of any current US politicians who wouldn't have gone running for a "safe place" or capitulated to anything when facing even 1 month of jail.

Wouldn't have wanted to live under his rule, but I would have loved to have a scotch and a cigar with the man.
 
James331 said:
Not a fan of his politics, but got to hand it to him for his tenacity, bouncing back from prison to his rise in power and lasting as long as he did, they don't make them like that anymore.

Can't think of any current US politicians who wouldn't have gone running for a "safe place" or capitulated to anything when facing even 1 month of jail.

Wouldn't have wanted to live under his rule, but I would have loved to have a scotch and a cigar with the man.
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It's easy to "rise to power" when you're a ruthless bugger with a rifle, surrounded by friends with rifles . . . Personally, I wouldn't have trusted the scotched served me to be safe to drink, or my ability to walk out of wherever we were drinking and resume my normal life. Also don't much care to have a drink with a lowlife cretin who'd kill me as soon as look at me funny.
 
He was probably dead for months, and the commies just now decided to announce his sudden death.

And I agree, good riddance. Cuba is sooo much better off because of him.....:rolleyes:
 
arkvet said:
Wow James. One of the ****tiest human beings to ever live on earth and you seem to admire him. Hmm.
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I'm not going after you personally here, but do want to make a point.

Failing to recognize the strengths of your adversary is the first step on the journey to defeat. I see this a lot and it irritates me. Castro outlasted the US for his entire life, we never defeated him and his regime lives on much to our shame.
After 9-11 anyone who pointed out the strengths of the hijackers was immediately demonized. Look, they were scumbags in our eyes but heroes to their backers. Until you recognize that they had support and we're determined, motivated and successful you limit your ability to defeat them or defend against future attacks.
Look at the way the Hillary campaign totally squandered a sure victory by completely underestimating and demonizing Trump (thank God).
Respect and recognize the strengths of your enemies to avoid nasty surprises and enhance your chance of overcoming them.

Yes, Castro was evil and I'm confident will be paying the price for a miserable eternity.

Thanks for allowing me to use your post to make my argument.


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arkvet said:
Wow James. One of the ****tiest human beings to ever live on earth and you seem to admire him. Hmm.
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Less US Kool-Aid, more reading comprehension.

The very first thing I said was I don't like his politics, and if you read much of anything I ever wrote on here, you'll quickly see I'm not for communism or government overreach.

That said, yeah, lots of dictators come and go, not many, if any, last as long as Castro, not seeing the things you can learn, the things which were impressive, is to ignore history, and historically the folks who ignore history don't do all that hot.

I like the founding fathers, a couple had slaves, but I don't pick that one topic, like a simple minded child, and ignore how they made the constitution and formed this country, and let them be demonized


Every person has aspects to admire and learn from, and other parts which should raise alarm and need to be defended against, some are more one way or another, but ignoring one side of a person is really simple minded.
 
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If you liked Castro, you'd love Lenin.
 
I don't think any of us "liked" Castro, but he created a successful cult of personality.

Was recently visiting with a sweet lady, a child of Cuba who had the good fortune of becoming a US citizen long ago, when she married a US naval officer. In our discussion of the recent thawing of official relations between the US and Cuba, her daughter (whose politics and mine perhaps do not completely mesh) lamented about how she hoped that the increase in US visitors wouldn't "ruin" Cuba.

Well!

Mama straightened her right out, and held forth at some length about just how comprehensively the Castro regime had harmed the country and stolen property from productive (and patriotic) Cubans. And Fidel had been a classmate of her brother in law school, a houseguest in her family's home. Aviation content: the regime appropriated her brother's Stinson, gave it to Che.
 
Does this mean all the Cubans are gonna go back ? Man, Hialeah is gonna be a ghost town !
 
Hopefully Mugabe will be next. Probably not much chance of losing Putin soon, though.
 
Some folks might want to review their history to understand the role the US played in creating the political and economic environment that gave rise to Castro as well as other such leaders around the world. We help to create them then we ostracize them and then are stunned when they become our enemies.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Some folks might want to review their history to understand the role the US played in creating the political and economic environment that gave rise to Castro as well as other such leaders around the world. We help to create them then we ostracize them and then are stunned when they become our enemies.
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You forgot the part where we rebuild their country after blowing everything up!
 
Castro or no Castro, the need for us to alienate Cuba ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. Castro didn't play nice? How about all of the other Central and South American banana republic leaders over the years? Move on.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Does this mean all the Cubans are gonna go back ? Man, Hialeah is gonna be a ghost town !
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Now you've done it :eek::D

break break---

Good riddance to that despot. It certainly doesn't absolve our hand in the supporting of puppet governments that created his populist rise to power in the first place, nor the general disdain the Second World (C and S America) still has for our Country even well past the end cold war, but his legacy was a cautionary tale that military revolts don't necessarily yield happiness and prosperity just because the guy is a fellow compatriot. They paid for that lack of progress for half a century. To my family friends from childhood, who emigrated and sought asylum in my native Puerto Rico, running away from this sociopath's "education" camps in the 80s, today we lift our glasses in mutual rejoice. Burn in hell Castro.
 
Once Cuba gets a taste for capitalism, democracy wont be far behind. This will be a HUGE boom. Cubans are educated, healthy, hard workers and poor. That place is gonna change FAST!
 
coloradobluesky said:
Once Cuba gets a taste for Capitalism, democracy wont be far behind. This will be a HUGE boom. Cubans are educated, healthy, hard workers and poor. That place is gonna change FAST!
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They had it once. Until Castro took it away.
 
Come on people. Don't you see opportunity when it knocks? Sure Castro was bad. But Cuba is ready to GO!!!
 
SkyDog58 said:
Some folks might want to review their history to understand the role the US played in creating the political and economic environment that gave rise to Castro as well as other such leaders around the world. We help to create them then we ostracize them and then are stunned when they become our enemies.
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For that I'll give ya credit, Our foreign policy has been wrong for a long time.
 
coloradobluesky said:
Once Cuba gets a taste for capitalism, democracy wont be far behind. This will be a HUGE boom. Cubans are educated, healthy, hard workers and poor. That place is gonna change FAST!
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Cuba is in many respects like Vietnam. They are socialist, they are not a democracy, but they are very much capitalistic. They have a very thriving, solid tourist economy, just not from US tourism. They have modern roads, modern cities, and modern cars. Sure, most of the country is poor, but that describes every other Caribbean nation. People seem to forget that the middle class doesn't exist in large quantity outside of the US, UK and Europe.

I haven't been there personally since I was a kid, but those that have traveled there recently report that Jamaica and the DR are both dumps compared to Cuba, and that's considering areas outside of the major cities. Take a look on Google Earth, you might be surprised.
 
The one looming question is, as we continue to normalize economic and diplomatic relations with Cuba, what is to become of "wet foot dry foot" policy? Lord knows it has been a sore spot for the other Latin American immigrant groups, Central Americans in particular... which is my code speak for Mexico, which may be part of N america, but I consider them Central American in spirit and governmental behavior.
 
Mason said:
Oh, rats. Now Obama won't be able to give Gitmo back to him.
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Keeping Gitmo open was stupid. Roosey Roads (Puerto Rico) was by far, a larger, and much more capable base, and it wasn't split in two halves requiring a boat trip to get from one side to the other (you can't drive from one peninsula to the other on Gitmo) yet they closed it down instead. Strategically, they are practically in the same place.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Keeping Gitmo open was stupid. Roosey Roads (Puerto Rico) was by far, a larger, and much more capable base, and it wasn't split in two halves requiring a boat trip to get from one side to the other (you can't drive from one peninsula to the other on Gitmo) yet they closed it down instead. Strategically, they are practically in the same place.
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Gitmo was kept open for the political canard that it is in foreign land. PR is US soil. Rosie Roads was closed because the only reason the NAVY wanted to keep the place was for the Vieques range. When the local yokels got all up in arms about the use of Vieques for bombing practice, via the inflection point that was the death of the local contractor at the observation tower, the DOD acquiesced and the NAVY said screw it, we don't need the place then. The economic impact was felt immediately. It was a Pyrrhic victory for the local populace.
 
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