Fidel Castro dead

[abaris]

I'm on mobile but I do remember reading an article from a political science journal about how he only chose to make his regime communist because he hated the West.

As I said, there was a lot going on at that time. One article certainly doesn't cover it all. Raul as well as Che were communists right from the get go. Fidel was an opportunist. I think he would have gladly taken any opportunity that kept him in charge. I don't know the exact timeline and which side actually started the altercation, but at the end, Castro had no other choice than to turn to the Soviets. Not with all the embargos in place. From the top of my head I only know that the USA enforced a sugar embargo, followed by Castro nationalising US assets. If Castro made any hostile move before the sugar embargo was declared is beyond my knowledge without looking deeper into the matter.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Are you guys serious? So you bought the bullshit propaganda about him being an evil dictator hook line and sinker.

Think about it. The US has been trying to assassinate Castro for 50 years. If he’d been the villain they painted him to be somebody close to him would have betrayed him. You can’t win loyalty with an iron fist. Not the kind of loyalty that allows you to defy the west for half a century.

Castro drove the gamblers and graft out of Cuba. So of course the US is pissed that he died of old age rather than at their hands. By buying the propaganda, you miss the main message of his life is that the west can be defied.

That's your defense? People close to him liked him? People close to him were loyal to him? Yeah, surely you couldn't say that about any other brutal dictator figure in history...

Do you know how many innocent deaths are attributed to the Castro regime? Or what sort of human rights atrocities went on in Castro's UMAP labor camps? Or how stifled the Cuban population's rights were? Even if you attempt to excuse those things, he was still an awful leader. Cuba's communist economy simply did not function. It was awful and the only way it kept itself afloat was because the USSR was funneling millions into the regime. When the Soviets fell, a significant portion of the population was starved or malnourished. 

Am I supposed to ignore all that and respect him because he stuck it to the U.S.?

QFT - those that respect Castro are deluded in equal measures if anything else:

Just to remove any misguided admiration people have for Cuba's dearly departed:

"'According to Castro’s own estimates, at one point there were as many as 15,000 political prisoners in Cuba. One of the darkest periods of the repression occurred in 1963 when Castro approved “Operation P,” named because of a black “P” (for pimps, prostitutes, pederasts) emblazoned on the uniforms of those arrested. The operation saw Castro’s newly formed secret police sweep through Havana targeting homosexuals, religious believers, and “deviants”—often no more than men with long hair and blue jeans. Those rounded up were placed in UMAPs (Military Units to Help Production), a euphemism for concentration camps, and forced to do hard labor. According to the poet Armando Valladares, imprisoned by Castro in 1960, “there have been few examples of repression of homosexuals in history as virulent as in Cuba.”'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...at-90.html

[Edwardo Piet]

Wonder if they will now tell us Castro's part in the Kennedy assassination?

Don't be silly. Panda wasn't even born then.

[A Theist]

Fidel Castro kicking the bucket, who gives a shit. Ohio State beats Michigan, 30 to 27 in double overtime, priceless!

[account_inactive]

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

I can't imagine anyone on here would defend the Kim dynasty. 

But then again I've read people here extolling the virtues of Castro, so, I wouldn't be surprised (anymore).

[Anomalocaris]

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

He is about 32 years old now. If CIA set about assassinating him right away, we can expect he would die in as little as 58 years.

[account_inactive]

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

I can't imagine anyone on here would defend the Kim dynasty. 

But then again I've read people here extolling the virtues of Castro, so, I wouldn't be surprised (anymore).

I wouldn't be surprised.

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

He is about 32 years old now.  If CIA set about assassinating him right away, we can expect he would die in as little as 58 years.

Considering he is a heavy smoker and drinker, possibly suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure as a result of his massive weight gain - I think he might be slowly on the way out as we type.

Probably a heart attack, just like his father.

[Iroscato]

Here's hoping the next asshole to go is Kim Jong-un.

That fat fuck shouldn't survive long.

He is about 32 years old now.  If CIA set about assassinating him right away, we can expect he would die in as little as 58 years.

He looks like he'll soon be fat enough to fall through the ground, after it was weakened by the Glorious People's Mining Crusade.

[account_inactive]

Speaking of fat fucks...

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He looks like he'll soon  be fat enough to fall through the ground, after it was weakened by the Glorious People's Mining Crusade.

I wonder how everyone feels when Alex Salmond walks into the House of Commons.

Fucking earthquake.