Castro Ends Silence, Praises Obama

[bemildred]

Source: VOA

Cuba's former president Fidel Castro broke a one-month silence to praise new U.S. President Barack Obama.

In a posting on a government website, Mr. Castro said he does not have the least doubt about Mr. Obama's honesty. But, he said, many questions remain about the new American leader.

The comments were Mr. Castro's first written remarks since December 15. His long silence prompted speculation that the 82-year-old's health had deteriorated.

Mr. Castro's article was about a conversation he had with Argentina's president Christine Fernandez, who visited him in Cuba on Wednesday.


Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-22-voa20.cfm

[Mika]

1. Let's end the embargo and travel ban forthwith.

Cuba has been seeking normalization for decades. Time for Mr Obama to do it!

[GreenTea]

3. Absolutely! There is no reason or good coming from it, only a group of right-wing Cubans in FL

along with the republicans have been keep this bullshit embargo going....Just look at how the republicans love Communist China's cheap labor, selling of their corporate goods and products!

[drgonzosghost]

10. That's one doozie of a point GreenTea!

And an angle I never really looked at. I have mixed feelings on Castro and Cuba myself, jury is still out with me. I grew up in south Florida and remember stories from the "old timers" about how the whole area was in a state of panic during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He literally could have nuked us and there would be about a 2 minute response time. So based on that, I have always been of the opinion "screw Castro, don't lift the embargo until he's dead". But times change and I realize he was just one of Kruschev's many tools at the time.

But your point about China really opened my eyes....nice feeling actually!

[sofa king]

12. Other things to consider.

American official history tends to gloss over a couple of points in the Cuban Missile Crisis. One is that Castro didn't declare Cuba to be a socialist republic (Communist) until after the Bay of Pigs invasion. When that invasion failed, other politically destablilizing efforts were attempted which, if attempted by any other nation against the United States today, would be branded as terrorism. Further plans included at least one proposal to execute a false-flag attack on the United States in order to justify an invasion.

Castro was pushed into the arms of the Russians. That doesn't excuse him from being a wanker dictator, which he still is. But it's important to know.

Another and highly important thing to note is that it was the United States that first began pushing Jupiter medium-range ballistic missiles up against the Soviet Union's border. Beginning in 1961, Jupiter MRBMs were deployed well within the range of the Soviet Union in Turkey. The Soviet moves in Cuba can be seen, at least in part, as tit-for-tat. It was Kennedy's agreement to quietly remove these missiles which defused the Crisis, but it was years before it was publicly acknowledged, long after average Americans were taught to view the Soviet moves as unprovoked aggression.

A similar example of one-sided reporting occurred recently in the Persian Gulf. You probably recall the Iranian capture of fifteen British sailors in 2007 and the tense standoff between them and the U.S. and the U.K. What wasn't nearly as widely reported was that two months previously, the United States attempted to kidnap two senior Iranian intelligence officials while they were on an official visit to Kurdistan. The operation was timed to coincide with one of *'s chest-beating addresses to the nation, trying to drum up support for yet another war we can't win. The operation failed, but the Americans brought off five lesser officials (and later, using Iraqi stooges, an Iranian diplomat) and continued to hold them hostage until the Iranians picked up their own hostages as bargaining chips. Shortly after the Iranians were released, so were the British sailors.

[Mika]

13. Castro was NEVER in control of Soviet missiles.

I know plenty of people like to regurgitate that red-scare era myth, but Cuba had zero control over the launch of those nukes.

[Claire Beth]

6. I agree!!!! n/t

[liberal N proud]

2. Maybe Obama can restore relations with Cuba

It might be nice place to vacation again someday

[harun]

14. At minimum stop the embargo. I have every confidence he will do

what is right here.

[Jefferson23]

4. More good news!

[dbonds]

5. We should restore and normalize relations with Cuba.

Shutting them out hasn't done anyone any good. The mob bosses that lost casino's there are probably all gone by now anyway. Our relationship with China proves it isn't because we don't want to do business with Communist countries that we keep them shut out.

[proud progressive]

7. i completely disagree! we should do to them what we did to iraq!

all we need to do to convince the dumb-ass electorate, msm, and congress is claim we have evidence of their massing wmd, pull out our intel from 1960's, change the dates, give it to colin powell, and, wahla!!
to pay for the 'war', after we have destroyed the country, we harvest all the sugarcane for bio-fuel. we may not find the russian missiles but we will find boo coo '50's and '60's cars that were causing the planet to warm.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. I'm glad Castro had the decency not to die until the Obama administration.

That's one more thing Bush won't be taking credit for.

God knows he would have.

[Mika]

11. He's not dead yet!

Wouldn't surprise me if he outlives an Obama administration. He's one tough buzzard.

[RedCloud]

9. Canción para el amigo de Fidel...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEj7jnR--Dg