Castro one cough away from death

miller8966

Doesnt look like the former slugger has much longer to go. I give him about 6 months before he has a rendevous with JFK.

LeilaMoonTurtle

is today pick on castro day?

Cosmo

miller8966 wrote:

Doesnt look like the former slugger has much longer to go. I give him about 6 months before he has a rendevous with JFK.

...
Good. Then, maybe we can declare a victory and end this nonsense with the Cuban people.

BeBe

Love the title thread...lol!

Everyday should be pick on Castro day..but with an ice pick preferably.

justam

If he's one cough away, maybe someone should light some incense in his room and speed up the process.

catefrances

i can already see the puddle of saliva lying at the foot of the US government. after all those attempts looks like Castro may die from natural causes.

Towerman

he's already dead... they're just gaining time

MrBrian

So cuba is one cough away from a nike sweatshop. I mean we all know that after he goes the cubans will still be exploited and such. Only this time by the hands of american corporations.

mrwalkerb

get better Fidel

sponger

MrBrian wrote:

So cuba is one cough away from a nike sweatshop. I mean we all know that after he goes the cubans will still be exploited and such. Only this time by the hands of american corporations.

Not as long as his brother is in power. It was written into US foreign policy that all embargos are to remain in place if Castro's brother assumes power.

Hitch-Hiker

sponger wrote:

Not as long as his brother is in power. It was written into US foreign policy that all embargos are to remain in place if Castro's brother assumes power.

He has done for the moment. Although it's unclear as to whether he'll hold it after Fidel dies, but even if he does, I doubt it'll last very long. He's not exactly in the prime of life.
It will be interesting to see what happens in Cuba over the next few years. Things are gonna change.

catefrances

i just felt like bumping this one cause it amuses me. oh and hey!! the old man is still breathing and more than one cough from death. still.

Byrnzie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... ainst_Cuba
'..The United Nations General Assembly has condemned the embargo as a violation of international law every year since 1992. In 2002, for example, it condemned the embargo by 173 votes to 3.[32] Israel routinely joins the U.S. in voting against the resolution as has Palau every year since 2004. The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Perez Roque called the embargo "an act of genocide". Cuba has also denounced as "theft" the use of frozen Cuban assets to pay for lawsuits filed in the US against the Republic of Cuba...'

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1024-06.htm
Cuba in the Cross-Hairs: A Near Half-Century of Terror
by Noam Chomsky

'...In early 1964, the State Department Policy Planning Council expanded on these concerns: "The primary danger we face in Castro is . . . in the impact the very existence of his regime has upon the leftist movement in many Latin American countries. . . . The simple fact is that Castro represents a successful defiance of the US, a negation of our whole hemispheric policy of almost a century and a half." To put it simply, Thomas Paterson writes, "Cuba, as symbol and reality, challenged U.S. hegemony in Latin America." International terrorism and economic warfare to bring about regime change are justified not by what Cuba does, but by its "very existence," its "successful defiance" of the proper master of the hemisphere. Defiance may justify even more violent actions, as in Serbia, as quietly conceded after the fact; or Iraq, as also recognized when pretexts had collapsed.'

Byrnzie

Pretty despicable behaviour by the U.S when all is said and done:

http://www.counterpunch.org/dwyer11032003.html
Noam Chomsky: Cuba has become a symbol of courageous resistance to attack. Since 1959 Cuba has been under attack from the hemispheric superpower. It has been invaded, subjected to more terror than maybe the rest of the world combined--certainly any other country that I can think of--and it's under an economic stranglehold that has been ruled completely illegal by every relevant international body, It has been at the receiving end of terrorism, repression and denunciation, but it survives.

If you look back at the declassified record and the problems that Cuba was posing and therefore had to be overthrown, one intelligence analyst said that "the very existence of the Castro regime is successful defiance of US policies that go back a hundred and fifty years". He's not talking about the Russians. He is talking about the Monroe Doctrine, which says we are the masters of the hemisphere. It goes on to say that this is really dangerous as it offers a model that others might want to follow. That's what is called "communist aggression". You have a model that somebody wants to follow. So you have to destroy the virus.

Kissinger, for example, during the other 9/11--the one that happened in 1973--was concerned that Allende, with his democratic victory and social programs would spread contagion not only in Latin America, but even in Italy where the United States at the very same time was carrying out large scale subversive operations to try to undermine Italian democracy and even supported fascist parties in Italy.

Yes, Cuba is the symbol of successful defiance that accounts for the venomous hostility. The very existence of the regime, independent of what it does, by not subordinating itself to power is just an unacceptable defiance for the rest of the world. It's a symbol of what can be done without using harsh conditions. It's once again a case of those under the most severe conditions are doing things that others can't do.

So, for example, let's take Cuba's role in the liberation of Africa. It's an astonishing achievement that has almost been totally suppressed. Now you can read about it in scholarship, but the contribution that Cuba made to the self-liberation of Africa is fantastic. And that was against the entire concentrated power of the world. All the imperialist powers were trying to block it. It finally worked and Cuba's contribution was unique. That's another reason why Cuba is hated. Just the plain fact that black soldiers from Cuba were able to beat back a South African invasion of Angola sent shock waves throughout the continent. The black movements were inspired by it. The white South Africans were psychologically crushed by the fact that South African forces could be defeated by a black army. The United States were infuriated. If you look at the next couple of years, the terrorist attacks on Cuba got much worse.

But yes, it's a symbol of successful defiance. One can have arguments about what society is like and what it does, but that's for Cubans to decide. But for the world its symbolic significance is not slight.

BD: You are aware of the plight of the five Cuban political prisoners in the United States. You are also very aware of flagrant abuses, not only judicial but also of human and prisoner rights regarding the visits of two of the prisoners' wives. Why do you think that the EU, the UN, and the other international bodies that are supposed to be keeping an eye on democracy are allowing this repression to continue?

Noam Chomsky: The reason is embarrassingly simple. You don't challenge the chief Mafia Don. It's dangerous. Everyone knows that. There's no higher authority, there's just the Mafia. If the Don is doing something you don't like, you can only object quietly. That's the main reason.

The secondary reason is that the European elite share the interests of American power. They may not like the US throwing its weight around that much--especially when it interferes with them--but fundamentally they don't disagree. They want to support the same programs of economic integration, so-called neoliberal programs. They are not unhappy to see the US power in reserve to crush people who stand up and get in the way.

The thing with the Cuban Five is such a scandal, its hard to talk about it. Cuba was providing the FBI with information about the terrorist actions taking place in the United States, based in the United States--completely criminal. So instead of arresting the terrorists, they arrested the people that provided the information, which is so ridiculous I find it difficult to talk about it. They put them under very hard conditions and it's not recorded. You can't read about it. So one of the reasons it goes on is because nobody knows about it. There were a few brief mentions, but all it said was that these people were informing Cuba that an unarmed plane was going .to fly over Havana. That's about the only story that was reported. The actual facts of the matter are not secret but no one knows.

Take the embargo, which has been challenged by everyone. The European Union did bring a challenge to it at the World Trade Organization and the US just told them to get lost. In fact, what the Clinton administration said was that Europe was challenging a policy, at that time, of thirty years. These were US policies aimed at overthrowing the government in Cuba without announcing that yes, "we are international criminals and you are interfering with us and therefore you have no right to say anything" and then the US just pulled out of the negotiations and what's anybody going to do about that?

The US has vetoed resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. It vetoed the Security Council resolution affirming the World Court judgment which condemned the US for pronounced international terrorism. No one mentions this, nobody knows it, it's not part of anyone's consciousness. You go into the faculty club or the editorial offices and people will never have heard about it. That's what it means to have extreme power and a very subservient intellectual class. It's out of history, it didn't happen.'

jlew24asu

Byrnzie wrote:

Pretty despicable behaviour by the U.S when all is said and done:

and it goes on and on and on..

TriumphantAngel

jlew24asu wrote:

Byrnzie wrote:

Pretty despicable behaviour by the U.S when all is said and done:

and it goes on and on and on..

there's no pleasing you.
if byrnzie had posted a link with no comment, you would still be all over his ass.

how would you describe the behaviour by the U.S. jlew?

CHANGEinWAVES

catefrances wrote:

i just felt like bumping this one cause it amuses me. oh and hey!! the old man is still breathing and more than one cough from death. still.

you're a shit stirrer! :twisted:

catefrances

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

catefrances wrote:

i just felt like bumping this one cause it amuses me. oh and hey!! the old man is still breathing and more than one cough from death. still.

you're a shit stirrer! :twisted:

this shit needs to be stirred. :twisted:

CHANGEinWAVES

catefrances wrote:

this shit needs to be stirred. :twisted:

add a dash of salt!

catefrances

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

catefrances wrote:

this shit needs to be stirred. :twisted:

add a dash of salt!

not in my mojito you american imperialist.