Burying Fidel

In 1971 Woody Allen made a film he named "Bananas" which among other things was a spoof about how a Latin American Revolutionary, a kind of Fidel Castro, turned out to be insane after he wrested power, and made people wear their underwear on the outside... or something like that.

Yes, Woody Allen is a Lefty, but back then JFK was still a fond memory and since he did battle with Castro, Fidel was not as popular with the Left as he is today.

Peggy Noonan is not a Lefty and suggests that the murdering tyrant that the Left adores (and Democrats would praise if they didn't need the Cuban votes in the swing-state Florida) may in fact already be dead:

It has long been my bitter hunch that the man I can't help think of as the last monster of the 20th century, Fidel Castro, creator and warden of the floating prison to our south, would die of old age in a big brass bed, a snifter of brandy in one hand and a good cigar in the other. No firing squad, no prison. He'd leave thinking he got away with it all. He had that kind of luck. The devil takes care of his own.

Now Cuban authorities say Castro has temporarily stepped down due to ill health. And it is possible this is true. It is just as possible that Castro is dead, and that what we are witnessing is not the graceful and temporary relinquishing of power--that would be unlike our Fidel, whose frozen fingers would more likely have to be peeled off the steering wheel with the back of a hammer--but the spinning of the death of a monster whose sudden departure might shock the people of Cuba into something like movement toward progress. And so Fidel is "sick" and his brother "stepping in." One suspects that in the coming weeks Castro will "take a turn for the worse," and that Raul Castro will take to hurried midnight visits to an empty hospital room, offering afterward to the waiting media both color coverage and play by play: "The tubes have been taken out. He mouthed the words, 'Tell the people I love them, and leave them in good hands.' "

Then, once the spontaneous mourning demonstrations have been arranged, will come word of his passing.

The pre-positioning of Raul solves a potential struggle for succession and inhibits competitors.

How about this: Treat it as an opportunity. Use the change of facts to announce a change of course. Declare the old way over. Declare a new U.S.-Cuban relationship, blow open the doors of commerce and human interaction, allow American investment and tourism, mix it up, reach out one by one and person by person to the people of Cuba. "Flood the zone." Flood it with incipient prosperity and the insinuation of democratic values. Let Castroism drown in it.

That is how to undo Fidel, and Fidelism. That's how to give him, on the chance he's alive, a last and lingering headache. That's how to puncture his mystique. Let his people profit as he dies.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110008741

As Noonan says, the 40 year-old economic embargo has served its purpose in that anyone with half a brain (this obviously excludes the Leftists in this country) can see disaster illustrated in the Communism of Cuba. (prounced koo-bah)

Still, let's talk to the Cubans of Florida and hear what they think about this idea. They are the families who lost their homes and land to the Revolution. They are the widows and orphans of the men who lost their lives in the Bay of Pigs debacle when President Kennedy demonstrated his lack of character and courage... letting the brave freedom fighters die on the beach.

These people who were personally persecuted by Castro and betrayed by the over-rated, morally bankrupt JFK, should be heard before we jump in and make new policy.