Saturday, November 26, 2016

BREAKING -- Fidel Castro dead, at 90 years of age

I saw a pointer on The Hill, and did a Google search. BBC is good for this sort of thing:
Fidel Castro, declining years (HT: BBC & AFP/Getty)
Fidel Castro, Cuba's former president and leader of the Communist revolution, has died aged 90, his brother has said.

"The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday)," President Raul Castro said.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost 50 years before Raul took over in 2008.
His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. But he was also accused of suppressing opposition.
The obituaries will roll in, but in responding to them let us understand that we are here dealing with a Marxist-Leninist (aka Communist) dictator with much to account for, starting with the blood of many innocents. Of course, I have come to the view that on the whole we are the worst, most blood-guilty generation in history; with the blood of 800+ million victims of abortion in the past 40+ years crying up from the ground against us.

Our judgement is suspect, and neither our praise nor our blame is to be regarded as so absent serious and sober-minded fact checking.

I write this in full expectation that in the Caribbean as a whole, there will predictably be a one-sided celebration of Castro. The people of Cuba and of the Caribbean as a whole will be better served if we have a more sober-minded assessment.

As for BBC, no, he was not merely ACCUSED of suppressing opposition, Castro was beyond any reasonable or responsible doubt a bloody-handed Communist Dictator, though the exact death toll in Cuba and through Cuba elsewhere is hard or impossible for us to determine.  (It does not speak well of the BBC that it cannot say such plainly. [Cf. here and here as a start, also noting the exchange here.])

Let us condole with those who mourn a loss, but let us not lose sight of the duty to truth of coming to a sober understanding of the lessons of history. For, those who refuse to learn from its too often bitter cup, doom themselves to repeat or to echo its worst chapters. END

PS: Discussion is blogged at UD.