Castro assures Bush "You will never have Cuba!", so there!

There are people who love to blame the U.S. for the ills of the world. And, why not, I guess? Someone has to be blamed, and it's easier to blame others for our own failures, so why not the U.S. There are also those who seem to think that we have some grand, nefarious, imperialistic goal of eventually taking over the whole world. Uh, no, there are other political and religious ideological entities that have that end result in mind. You just have to look back through history to see who the worst imperialist offenders were, and that mind-set hasn't changed much since those days. The U.S. could care less about establishing an Empire, and who, in their right (civilized mind), would want that responsibility, anyway? But there are those who keep attempting to perpetuate that myth. Fidel Castro, it seems, is one such person that is convinced that we have our eyes firmly set on his small island, and by God, says he, the people of Cuba and their "revolution will fight until the last drop of blood" to defend that land. A mere 90 miles from the Florida Keys, I guarantee you, that if we truly wanted Cuba, it would have been ours a long time ago.

Castro shared his quite laughable paranoia in a full page manifesto to the people, published in the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, on Monday. (Definitely worth a read.) It's a long diatribe on how the U.S. is responsible for all their woes and how:

"Bush has intensified his plans for an occupation of Cuba, to the point of proclaiming laws and an interventionist government in order to install a direct imperial administration."

Huh? What laws and what interventionist government?

He also broaches the subject of the U.S. embargo against Cuba:

"It will very soon be 50 years since our people started suffering a cruel blockade; thousands of our sons and daughters have died or have been mutilated as a result of the dirty war against Cuba, the only country in the world to which an Adjustment Act has been applied inciting illegal emigration, yet another cause of death for Cuban citizens, including women and children."

As far as I know, the U.S. is the only country that has an embargo against Cuba, and that was initiated only after Cuba confiscated the property of U.S. Citizens. Why should a country be allowed to forcibly seize property belonging to others without repercussions? Is that fair? I think not. That's just common, government-mandated thievery. Granted, Cubans did lose their main source of supplies, 15 years ago, with the collapse of Communist Eastern Europe and the USSR, but surely, they can do business with other countries. The U.S. has never forced global sanctions on Cuba, so there are plenty of other countries that certainly could trade with them. What about China? And, I always thought the whole concept of Communism was to be self-sufficient, and to share the wealth amongst the people. Shouldn't they be thriving, by now? As far as I could tell, when I visited there in the 80s, the top Communist Party officials seemed to be living quite well, while the impoverished people continued to suffer, a mere 20 years after Castro's glorious "revolution". A revolution that was meant to better the lot of the Cubanos, and which has managed to do the opposite, through no fault other than a failed political system.

He's, obviously clueless as to why so many of his people will do anything to get off that communist 'paradise', including risking life and limb, by setting out to sea on a tire. He touts the Revolution for:

"training hundreds of thousands of teachers, doctors, scientists, intellectuals, artists, computer engineers and other professionals with university and post-graduate degrees in dozens of professions. This storehouse of wealth has allowed us to reduce infant mortality to low levels, unthinkable in any Third World country, and to raise life expectancy as well as the average educational level of the population up to the ninth grade."

But, who cares, frankly, about free education, sub-par medical services, reduced infant mortality and a higher life-expectancy, when you have no freedom and your quality of life is sorely lacking.

He also blames imperialism for global warming:

"Hunger and thirst, more violent hurricanes and the surge of the sea is what Tyranians and Trojans stand to suffer as a result of imperial policies. It is only through drastic energy savings that humanity will have a respite and hopes of survival for the species; but the consumer societies of the wealthy nations are absolutely heedless of that."

What can I say?!

He ends his missive with a message to George W:

"I assure you that you will never have Cuba!"

Guess what, we don't want Cuba! We might want freedom for your people, but don't flatter yourself, Fidelcito, the U.S. has no designs on your small, crumbling piece of real estate.