Posted on 02/21/2008 8:36:12 PM PST by jazusamo
Washington, D.C. — Fidel Castro is finally on his way out. After nearly 50 years of bloody, iron-fisted rule, the world’s longest reigning dictator — and one of the last communist tyrants on the planet — has announced that he is stepping down. That’s good news, but it’s not likely to change much for the 11 million captive people in Cuba.
On February 19, Granma, the Cuban Communist Party’s organ, carried a letter purportedly written by the 81-year-old ailing autocrat, announcing that ill health prevents him from continuing to “discharge the duties” of president and commander-in-chief of Cuba's armed forces. He will, the paper reverently notes, no longer be referred to as “El Commandante.” Instead, he’ll be simply addressed as “Comrade Fidel” — just like that other wonderful old and venerated leader, “Comrade Mao.”
In the same missive that announced his “retirement,” Mr. Castro said, “I am not saying goodbye to you.” That part is apparently true. He’s hanging on as First Secretary of the ruling Communist Party and promises to continue penning diatribes on domestic and world affairs. Think of him as the “elder statesman of despotism.”
“It would be a betrayal to my conscience,” he wrote, “to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer.” Conscience? Where was this anguished sense of right and wrong in 1962 when he urged Nikita Khrushchev to “launch a pre-emptive [nuclear] strike against the United States”? Where was it in 1981 when he set more than 100,000 of his countrymen adrift in the Gulf Stream on homemade rafts and leaky boats from Mariel, Cuba?
Where was this Castro conscience in the 1980s when he dispatched tens of thousands of young Cuban soldiers to Guinea Bisseau, Mozambique and Angola as Soviet mercenaries?
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Meet the new boss...
Nothing yet until he croaks. After that, it’s a question of how much control his little brother has over the military and secret police, same old story. Police states tend to be far too self-perpetuating, with or without the cult of personality.
McCain/North 08
Say... That’s got an interesting ring to it.
I doubt much will change very soon with Raul but it’s going to be a pleasure watching Fidel’s funeral.
Definitely gets my vote!
“Resignment”? What is a resignment? I’ve heard of reassignment and resignations but this seems to be a hybrid.
I had to think about that when I saw it too. :)
He's dead, Jim.
Should’a said re-tires-ment.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR CUBA?
“If any Gorbachev raises his head around here,” snarled Castro as recently as 2002, “we’ll promptly chop it off!”
Thus spoke Raul — not Fidel— Castro in 2002. Yet this is the man who Democrats, the mainstream media (and the scholarly “Cuba Experts” they’re all trotting out this week) assure us will engineer a Cuba regime “opening” based on the “Chinese mode.” Needless to say, this Cuba “opening” will demand a reciprocal prompt U.S. “opening” towards it.
Not only would such an opening condemn Cubans to further tyranny, it would loot the U.S. taxpayer.
http://www.newsmax.com/fontova/cuba/2008/02/21/74445.html
Thanks for the link, good article and I can’t think of a reason not to believe it.
I believe a loyalty to Fidel keeps the Cuban population in check as much as the police state. Once Cubans know for sure Fidel is dead things could begin to unravel if people think a counterrevolution might get any support from the outside world. Of course they were burned once by JFK.
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NEVER FORGET
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ELIAN’s -Cold Dead Eyes- in Cuba
http://www.Freerepublic.com/forum/a395a99a7020f.htm
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NEVER FORGET
I thought that honor belonged to Bill Clintoon!
bump
Nah! North would be a great Secretary of Defense!
Resignment? Did that come before or after his retiration?
Fidel’s what?
I wonder if Chris Dodd will wear a black armband when this POS finally dies?
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