Fidel Castro walks again after breaking his kneecap.

Like I said, people make him look like a saint, Rev.

The Americans didn’t like him, they where beat by him and now the only real thing they can do is to make him look like a saint and an evil man who tortured people.

Sadly, this has spread through out the world and more people believe this but that’s the way it goes. He is no Dalai Lama, but he sure not what you described him, Rev. But you also said it LOOKS like it so I dont know what you mean by that.
Regards
Stellar

I try to describe him as fairly and accurately as possible, Stellar. He is a dictator and he does have a record of brutality. That's not why the Americans don't like him though, they don't like him because he booted them out. He basically told them that it was his country and they were no longer welcome because of things that they'd done there.

The funny thing is that Fidel would have welcomed them back long before now, he just won't do it on their terms. Documents coming out of the former Soviet Union show that Fidel did not want the Soviets to dominate his country either. The missiles that were put there and caused the Cuban Missile Crisis were allowed only because Fidel needed the money to feed his people. If he could have sold sugar and fruit into the American market, he wouldn;t have allowed the missiles at all, but his people were starving.

There have been several attempts on Castro's life by the CIA. The US government has tried time and again to destroy Cuba economically, often affecting its relations with other countries in the process.

If the US would have accepted Fidel when he first took over and made overtures to them in an attempt to gain access to their markets, would he be as dictatorial as he's become? Would Cuba be a much wealthier country? Woulf it have embraced democratic socialism instead of being headed by one man?

We'll never know the real answers, but I suspect, given Castro's attempts to make his country better, that at least some of that would have happened.

Maybe you should move to Cuba and see what its all about if you admire Castro so much. You wouldn't last a day.

Try dealing in fact, bmac. A lot of desperately poor people in South America look at Cuba as a huge step up. They've seen what being a client state of the US brings with it...even more brutality than Cuba, even more "dissidents" getting slammed in the nuts with electric cattle prods, even more family members being disappeared in the middle of the night.

Castro has provided medical care and education and food. Things aren't as bad there as they were in Pinochet's Chile, or Guatemala, or El Salvador. That's not being an "apologist" that's looking at reality.

Look what the US, even today, has attempted to do to Hugo Chavez. He's an elected leader. Twice, in landslides, if you count the recent referendum. Hell, when the CIA backed a coup against him it was the Venezuelan people who stood up and put him back in office. Chavez has put money into infrastructure and land reform and health care and education. Do you think the people of Cuba aren't aware of that? Do you think the people of Venezuela aren't aware that it was Cuba who sent doctors and teachers to help them?

US foreign policy consists of taking advantage of poor people. Those policies put Castro in power, put Chavez in power, have fucked Colombia over so badly that even Juan Valdez is a coke smuggler, put Pinochet in power, and on and on. You can point at Eastern Europe all you want, but the reality of Latin America is that they've suffered brutally under the sphere of influence of the United States. As brutally as anyone in Poland or Eastern Germany.

Cuba escaped that sphere early. The poor people there are better off as a result. That's reality.

Yes, the problems of the Cuban people are the fault of the US government. If the people of the US were allowed to trade with Cuba and vacation there the people of Cuba would be better off. How could anyone be so stupid as to claim otherwise?

Well, this was one bloody debate!

Anyway, bmc says that everybody is in fear over there. That’s not true my friend, I know this guy who teaches a band class. He took his band and went over to Cuba to play their tunes. They played on the streets, and a lot of people came out singing dancing talking and there were all these laughs! These weren't rich people either bmc. They were poor people, a lady from the crowd said to the band teacher "We have very little yet we are so happy, and you have so much yet you are so sad." That says it bmc, sure they would probably want much better. But you must understand bmc, that its not always money that you can buy you happiness.
:wink:

As for Castro, I don’t believe that he is as brutal as the media and people say he is I always have a knack of being sceptical of what they say (BTW-I didn’t mean being beat by them in the war, I meant more along the lines as a general fact of being beat, including kicking out American businesses.) I am afraid we are going to have to agree to disagree Rev, because I don't feel the need to do any further debating. I know where you stand, and I have proven where I stand. But I am glad I had an intelligent conversation with you Rev, and you pointed out a few good things. Unlike someone I know here....... :evil:

But he is gone, so no worries!
Regards
Stellar

Don't ever doubt brutality, Stellar.

The only brutality in Cuba is the Yanks at Gitmo. The people are happy and well treated, just poor. They have posters all over asking everyone to pray for the 5 heroes who were accused by the Yanks of spying on the US. There is no doubt where their sympathies lie. When they have a rally for them everyone who can shows up and there isn't a dry eye. My sister was at one with MILLIONS of people last week. They love Castro there and all that he stands for and has done for them.