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Who's Next: Cuba?

Apr 14, 2003 2:08 PM
Tags: leftwing, politics, socialism, war
CalPundit posits:
Cuban exiles in Miami excepted, the conservative obsession with him also seems odd. I mean, he's really just a garden variety tinpot dictator. I don't like him either, but there's at least several dozen in the world who are as bad or worse.

One of the mysteries of life, I suppose.
Nothing mysterious about it, in my opinion. Some of the more salient facts:
  • Cuba is really, really close to the United States.
  • Castro has phoenomenal longevity — 44 years in power. Mobutu ruled for 35 years; Stalin, 31.
  • Most importantly, there are a lot of people — particularly those politically high-up — who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis. That must have had quite an impact on the children whom it terrified, and I doubt they have forgiven Castro, or can think of him as anything other than the man who almost caused World War III.
I believe it's easy to over-play how much of an obsession he is. He didn't make the "Axis of Evil" cut. Logistically, this war could be a cakewalk, compared to Iraq. We already have a base on the island, and hundreds of thousands of soliders nearby. But, unlike Syria, there isn't even any real musing about ousting him and bringing democracy to Cuba.

Perhaps this is one case where a policy of containment really does work, in terms of isolating a dictator. It also can't hurt that he's on an embargoed island and has no oil.

Comments: Who's Next: Cuba?

Cuba is a horrifying place and to watch it celebrated by our idiotic politicians and celebrities is frightening to a lot of people. If they can be so blind about this man, Castro, who kills people for having the wrong opinion, who jails people forever because they are thought to be unfaithful to the state, then the terrifying thought occurs: it might someday be me in the 'it' country of the moment, watching the celebs visit and suck up to a dictator while all around me murder and torture go on. I might be extra sensitive to this kind of thinking as I am Russian-Jewish and have had half my family killed by Hitler and the other half killed by Stalin while the elite made heroes of these men. It is a shame it is still going on in Cuba and that we have learned nothing.

Posted by: Kashei on April 14, 2003 3:18 PM | permalink

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