AP Photo – Natacha Pisarenko
Fidel Castro was a monster – plain and simple. Over the past 57 years he killed and tortured countless thousands of his own people. Cuba is an island prison as thousands of its more fortunate former citizens now living in southern Florida will attest.
The American left has been quite willing to create a romantic caricature of Castro. It is chic in some leftist circles to wear quasi-military fatigues that resemble his or to hang his visage as “art” on the walls of one’s home. He is often called a “revolutionary” in the most romantic connotation of that term.
Many of the leading lights of Hollywood are among Castro’s most ardent fans. Chevy Chase, Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover and many others have been effusive in their praise of Castro and his regime.
But say what they will, dress as they will and adorn their personal art galleries as they will, the left’s construct of Fidel Castro is just that – a construct. The reality of Castro is starkly and shockingly different.
Fidel Castro was a brutal, ruthless, murderous dictator who persecuted anyone who displeased him. Even as Cuba “mourns” Castro’s death, thousands of innocents rot in hellhole prisons for nothing more than their political beliefs. In a half century of his dictatorial rule, thousands have been shot, hanged, tortured and imprisoned at his personal direction and whim.
It is true that 50 years of American policy toward Cuba has done nothing to mitigate Castro’s murderous behavior. But the recently developed Obama policy toward Cuba will do nothing either. The relaxation of American economic sanctions against Cuba by the Obama administration was granted while receiving exactly nothing in return. Leverage that America might have had in helping the suffering people of Cuba was forfeited by a weak, irresolute Obama administration.
It would be nice if President Obama – just once once before leaving office – would express some actual outrage over that which is actually outrageous. Instead, President Obama again demonstrated his facility at euphemism. In response to the news of Castro’s death, the president waxed eloquent on, “…the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation.”
If he means Cuban individuals and families the courses of whose lives were altered by living in constant fear of imprisonment, torture and death, perhaps the president’s statement is correct. But the statement definitely does not convey that kind of clarity and there is nothing to suggest that that was what Obama was thinking.
It was Donald Trump who spoke clearly.
Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.
While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.
Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
The left has it all wrong. Again. Fidel Castro is not a fallen folk hero. He was a monster.
It’s good that he’s dead.
Yes it is good that he is gone, but will his brother carry on the legacy?
Your news commentary Mr. Gleiser is absolutely correct! – there is NOTHING that anyone with a scintilla of common sense should want to or seek to glorify about Fidel Castro’s jackbooted totalitarian anti-democracy rule. Communism i.e. that which socialism morphs into, is EVIL and is the universal enemy of mankind.
Of all nations, communism/socialism is held by The United States of America in contempt as such a system is ANATHEMA to us and is overwhelming rejected by every true FREEDOM loving America citizen. Sadly, President Obama cannot see, as many others on his side of the aisle cannot see, what LIBERTY under GOD means which is the American Christian Heritage of our founding.
In stark contrast, our incoming president, President {Elect} Donald Trump, sees clearly that “the ideals of our Constitutional Republic are special” and American Free Market Capitalism are by far the best hope for all peoples everywhere.
Yes, your commentary is right on the mark. By what possible mental process can ANYONE admire Castor and his legacy? Yet many on the left do just that, including Obama.
Your usage of the word anathema seems a bit specious given that the US currently allocates almost 50% of it’s budget to social programs (social security, medicare, and medicaid). We boarded the ship to the land of socialism decades ago, and neither party has attempted to alter our course.
NO OTHER president in the history of The United States, has EVER been what President Obama is– he is a far leftist socialist “alinsky-ite” whose marxist modeled (after Venezuela or Cuba perhaps) “UN-Affordable Care Act” ACA i.e. obamacare his only legacy accomplishment? “if” you can even call it that, has been OVERWHELMINGLY UTTERLY REJECTED at the ballot box by the American people this past November 8th by the election of “private sector entrepreneur” Donald Trump [R] who will be sworn into office as the 45th President of The United States. President Elect Trump has said, and you can bank on it, “obamacare” will be COMPLETELY and TOTALLY repealed, dismantled, and gotten “off the backs” of Americans, that will be JOB ONE on day one.
To note, Hillary Clinton, the protégé of President Obama who same said far leftist socialist agenda she “ran on” was thoroughly REPUDIATED as she only won approximately 300 counties out of 5000 counties total nationwide, that is a mere 6%!
Our grand nation was built by and runs on a private sector free market economy, American Free Enterprise aka Capitalism, with millions of hard working people, rugged individualism if you will, our heritage, the very same heritage passed down to us by our Founding Fathers from the beginning, for all time.