Castro Admits Cuban Communism Doesn't Work — Or Does He?

Fidel Castro recently bestowed the Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg with an exclusive interview. More than a mere exclusive, this is the first interview granted by the Stalinist dictator to an American reporter in four years.

The MSM is absolutely agog with the catalogue of insights, woes and regrets bequeathed by the Cuban mass-murderer to Goldberg. “I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting” writes Goldberg.

“‘The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” Castro replied. And as mentioned the MSM and assorted “Cuba Analysts” are all aflutter over Castro’s “epiphany,” “honesty,” “regret,” –take your pick–“that Communism “doesn’t work.”

Some actual study of recent Cuban history might enlighten these learned parties. To wit:

“This doesn’t work, I’m resigning!” (Fidel Castro, July 1959 during political crisis with his puppet “President” Manuel Urrutia)

“This doesn’t work! Terrible mistakes were made (especially in adopting Che Guevara’s moral incentives)–we need material capitalistic incentives. So I’m resigning!” (Fidel Castro, July 1970, after the much-ballyhooed “10 million ton” sugar harvest proved way short and utterly disastrous.)

“The capitalists organize production better than we do. There’s much we can learn from them.” (Fidel Castro, 1986 during “Rectification Process” i.e. another “re-evaluation” after another economic crisis.)

“We are not afraid of the market. We are not afraid of economic reform. The people understand the reasons behind them and support them.” (Fidel Castro. Nov. 1991 announcing Cuba’s “Special Period” i.e. loss of Soviet Sugar Daddy–another re-evaluation after another economic crisis.)

Has any “Cuba Analyst” noticed a marked change in the rights, prosperity and welfare of the Cuban people after any of these “epiphanies,” “regrets,” “re-evaluations”, etc.?

And has any “Cuba Analyst” mentioned that Hugo Chavez (current Cuban Sugar-Daddy) looks to lose the Sept. 26 parliamentary elections in Venezuela 52 to 42 percent? (granted, there’s much room for altering the results.)

And has any “Cuba Analyst” mentioned that this will present Castro with an economic crisis as bad as the “Special Period” in the early 90’s after the Soviets collapsed? And will thus require another “re-evaluation,” that will buttress the regime but have the same effect on the Cuban people’s rights, prosperity and welfare as all the other “re-evaluations?”

And has any Cuba Expert mentioned that–given Castro’s history of pronouncements during his various economic crises (to say nothing of this one) –his pronouncements to Jeffrey Goldberg just might be insincere?.. Just might have an ulterior motive? … Just might mean absolutely nothing regarding the rights and welfare of the Cuban people?

If so, I haven’t seen or heard it.

Employing Jeffrey Goldberg as a conduit, during his exclusive interview, Castro also admonished Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Semitism and implored the Iranian leader to kindly desist from such error. And “try to understand why Israelis fear for their existence,” as Goldberg put it. “For over 2,000 years they (Jews) were subjected to terrible persecution,” explained Castro. “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours.”

However impolitic for Goldberg, the Atlantic‘s investigatory gumshoe/sleuth might have asked Castro why a scant two months ago he declared that, “the Fuhrer’s swastika is today Israel’s banner.”

Or why Cuba co-sponsored the U.N.’s infamous “Zionism= Racism” resolution in 1975. Or why Castro sent Cuban “volunteers” to fight (and get creamed) against Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Or why he provided training basis for the PLO, Al Fatah and Carlos the Jackal, the most notorious terrorist of the 70’s.

Or why Castro personally decorated Yasir Arafat with Cuba’s highest honor, the Bay of Pigs Medal, whereupon Arafat exulted that: “Comrade Fidel said that the Palestinian Revolution can count on the full support and aid of the Cuban Revolution! We are not alone!”

Or why Cuba’s current Foreign minister declared that, “Zionists are the same as Hitler’s hordes who massacred millions of Jews!”

Or why at the September 2001 United Nations “World Conference against Racism” conference in Durban, South Africa Castro denounced, “Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people!”

Or why for decades the Cuban press ran cartoons worthy of Julius Streicher, such as these.

Or why the PLO’s very first Latin American embassy was opened in Havana, Cuba in 1974–and with a cheeky little twist. The site for this embassy was a Jewish Community center that flourished during the reign of the unspeakable “dictator”( as known throughout the MSM) Batista, who never saw fit to a lay on finger on anyone’s property. But “President” (as known throughout the MSM) Castro snatched it from its Jewish owners at Soviet gunpoint. The title transfer whisked through in typical Castroite manner (resist and we shoot you.)

During the mid ’60s Castro’s police and military herded tens of thousands of Cuban youths (long-hairs, rock &rollers, the religious–and especially–gays) into forced labor camps at Soviet bayonet point. No pesky trials determined this, but their collective “crime” was “delinquency.” Che Guevara, “the Brains of The Cuban Revolution” (as Time magazine crowned him in a 1960 cover story) decreed this system of forced labor in 1960 for any and all who proved insufficiently reverential to his revolution’s mandates. “We send to Guanahacabibes people who have committed crimes against revolutionary norms,” explained Guevara. “It is hard labor. The working conditions are harsh.”

Alas, Che Guevara’s definition of “revolutionary norms” proved pretty sweeping. And the regime co-founded by this icon of freedom-mongers commenced to jail political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s and murder them at a higher rate pre-war Hitler’s. Above the barbed wire and just below the machine guns on the watchtowers, these prisoners saw a huge sign as they entered. “Work Will Make Men of You,” It read.

The greeting at Auschwitz’ entrance read, “Work Will Make You Free.”