Wednesday, August 02, 2006

El Caudillo

For reasons that only the mainstream media might comprehend, but only if they were willing to think hard about it, the apparent health crisis of Fidel Castro is front page news across the country, momentarily bumping the Middle East to the bottom of the page, or even page 3 in some cases. This is curious.

Castro has run Cuba for nearly 50 years now. In this time, the Cuban nation has suffered through a slow, steady decline into ruin. He has tolerated no dissent, has regularly jailed political opponents and has been more than willing to send his citizens off to die in pointless wars across the globe. Oddly enough, these are some of the things that George Bush has been accused of doing, but it is the rare voice outside of Miami’s Cuban enclave that brings any of this up. Most coverage of Castro in this country tends to take his pronouncements at face value.

One of the main reasons tyranny persists is that there are always those who admire tyrants. Even today, Hitler has his supporters, as do Stalin, Mao and countless others who were willing to do anything to gain and maintain power. Castro is cut from the same cloth as these others. If he is indeed entering his final days and preparing to meet his Maker, it would be a very happy day for the Cuban people.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can sat what you want about Fidel, but you have to admit his brother Juan was a hell of a pitcher.

Mr. D said...

Juan Castro? Thought he was an infielder for the Twins. Maybe you mean former Brewer great Billy Castro, gateway to former Brewer closer great Tom Murphy? Or maybe you mean Juan Valdez? Have a cup of rich Colombian coffee and see if you can figure it out.