Allahpundit:
A pitiful statement from the White House. (Or, if you prefer, “pathetic.”) The defense will be that Obama worked too hard on rapprochement to blow it now with a harsh condemnation that might antagonize Raul, but all that does is confirm the worst fears of opponents of the policy. The price of reconciliation with illiberal regimes tends to be willful blindness towards their abuses. Here’s Obama covering his eyes:
At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans – in Cuba and in the United States – with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.
For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements. During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends – bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity. This engagement includes the contributions of Cuban Americans, who have done so much for our country and who care deeply about their loved ones in Cuba.
Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro’s family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America.
That’s what a whitewash looks like. In particular, the exsanguinated line about Castro evoking unspecified “powerful emotions” in people feels like something you’d say about a controversial performer, as if Castro were Kanye West or Madonna circa 1990. If Obama couldn’t bring himself to say something critical, he would have been better off issuing a one- or two-line statement simply offering condolences to the family — and to Fidel’s victims for their own losses — and saying something vague about how he hopes this will be the beginning of a new age of freedom and prosperity for the Cuban people.
Now here’s Trump’s statement, with eyes open:
You can already hear the weeping and sniveling coming from the liberals Carter,Clinton,Obama,Gore Etc and hollywod as well Oliver Stones going to cry his fat little hollywood eyes out all of Hollywood will me morning the loss of this tyrant and so will the Useless Nations who gave him Standing Ovations at their little UN pig sty
It’s totally inappropriate to be celebrating the death of Fidel Castro when Cubans on the island are mourning his passing. Those on the right never seem to get the fact that people there actually take a very different view of him than does the Cuban refugee community in Florida, or the republican party.
I just saw Florida Congressional Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on CNN proclaiming that the mourning in Cuba was phony, and that people would be dancing in the streets there, were it not for the dictatorial oppressors that prevent them from doing so. The woman is a typical right-wing republican—which implies a set of beliefs that allow little or no room for differing outlooks about economic systems.
Island Cubans often take a very different view of Castro than does the refugee community in the U.S. Many would like a greater degree of freedom and a wider range of economic opportunities, but they’re also aware of what a highly aggressive strain of American-style capitalism could quickly do to their island’s independence, environment, and culture. That’s an entirely legitimate concern. Letting the Trumps of the world have free rein in Cuba would be like inviting in termites. They’d quickly turn Havana into Las Vegas.
I don’t consider Castro any sort of model leader. As to Castro’s crimes, however—many American presidents have far more blood on their hands, and that’s a truth to be dealt with. Our society is also afflicted with a far wider range of social ills than Cuba’s and on a much broader level, and that’s another unfortunate truth. Nor is the level of oppression in Cuba anywhere near what it is in the nation of our good buddies, the Saudis. The world is full of far worse than Fidel Castro, and we consider some of them “friends.”
@Greg:
Let’s see, the comment is wrong on so many levels
US Presidents are elected by the citizenry
Castro is a dictator who overturned a government and instituted a communist dicttatorship
US Presidents do not murder their opponents unless you are a clinton
Castro murdered countless thousands of Cubans and imprisoned countless thousands of others
Your president, obama is BFF with the Castro brothers, obvious enemies of America
Castro overthrew a corrupt dictatorship.
Fulgencio Batista was elected for a term of office from 1940 to 1944 following a military coup. He was then voted out, and took up residence in the United States. In 1952 he returned to Cuba to run in another election, which he didn’t stand a chance of winning. Three months before the election he staged another military coup, suspended the constitution, revoked political liberties, aligned himself with the wealthy landowners on the political right, became “el Presidente,” and remained a military dictator through the use of force until he was finally thrown out by Castro in 1959. During that time, Batista had the support of both of the U.S. government and organized crime. His government was as corrupt as they come. He turned Havana into a brothel for the world’s wealthy elite. Literally.
Castro’s land and economic reforms had wide popular support from the oppressed Cuban people. Their wealthy oppressors bugged out to Florida and other locations to plot and plan counter-revolutions. They sucked the Kennedy administration and the CIA into one such scheme, which resulted in the Bay of Pigs invasion, and screwed up any hope of better relations with Cuba for over half-a-century. It solidified Cuba’s alliance with Russia, leaving the Castro government in constant fear of a U.S. supported and financed military invasion.
That would be the actual, fully documented history of our modern-day relations with Cuba, as opposed to the right’s fantasy history.
Now maybe theyll round up all those american crinimals hiding out in cuba and return them to america to face trial and imprsonment and maybe Elian Goznalas can visit his relatives. And where castro is right now he can swim in a big lake of fire with Hitler,Stalin,Mao,Pol Pot and Ho Chi Mihn
@Greg:
Castro was a dirtbag, but that is who the left embraces
The world is not that simple. History is not that simple. Human beings are not that simple.
BBC coverage of Castro’s death: Fidel Castro death: Cuba plunged into mourning for ex-leader
@Greg:
Why did they fail? Was the national wealth of Cuba and its citizens better post Batista?
@Greg:
You should consider moving there. You could start a fight for 15 movement there. Here’s a nice travel brochure for you.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/last-communist-city-13649.html
@Greg:
I guess the people of Cuba are not mourning the death of a dirtbag so much….
http://moonbattery.com/graphics/bye-fidel.jpg
@Greg: ” he staged another military coup, suspended the constitution, revoked political liberties, aligned himself with the wealthy landowners on the political right, became “el Presidente,”” This is a BAD thing? I thought you would praise it since it the same thing, but for the alignment with the left, that Hillary is attempting right now.
The left really loves them some communist despots. Stalin, Mao, Che, Chavez and Castro, all communist, all violent and all oppressive… and the left LOVES them. Meanwhile, they attribute those oppressive tendencies to their opponents, when convenient.
@Greg: What Castro replaced is irrelevant. Trump’s statement summed it up correctly.
Your highly biased, probably supplied, version of history is flawed.
Communism doesn’t work.
I don’t care what Stockholm Syndrome Cubans have. Fidel, and now Raul, make Cuba and the world at large a worse place.
To candy-coat that with silly rants like yours hides an ulterior motive. Thanks to Obama, entertainment, and the media, far too many Americans think socialism/communism is the way to go.
The interesting part is this narrative the left-media is propagating: Castro is something other than a monster.
Mugabe, Stalin, Hitler, Bin Laden, Mao…when a part of my country is starting to treat these tyrants neutrally, it means they are rather interested in socialism/communism.
recall that cbs and Walter Cronkite promoted the rise of castro and the cia put castro in power