Castro says Obama has been underhanded in Egypt

[JI7]

Source: cnn

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro accused U.S. President Barack Obama of underhanded dealings with Egypt, saying Monday that while Washington provided the government with arms, the United States Agency for International Development financed the opposition.

"Nobody is unaware that the United States converted Egypt into its main ally in the Arab world," Castro wrote in an essay published Monday in state media. "It was the Arab country that received more arms shipments."

"Their Machiavellianism consisted of providing the Egyptian government with arms, while USAID provided funds to the opposition," he added, a reference to the 16th century Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli. "Obama doesn't have any way to manage the can of worms that he has opened."

The current Cuban government has not commented on the crisis in Egypt although state-run media has given it limited coverage.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/01/31/cuba.egypt/

---

Castro understands all about letting the people decide their Govt

[Itchinjim]

1. Shut up Fidel.

[SkyDaddy7]

24. The only popular dictators on DU are the ones the USA does not support...

I say we treat them all like Castro! I support the people who I think deserve a say in their government. No form of government is even close to perfect but they are in fact a necessary evil. So, the people should be able to choose.

[EFerrari]

29. The UN has condemned US policy in Cuba for many years now. n/t

[SkyDaddy7]

31. I happen to agree...

Our policy with Cuba needs to change...But that does not change the fact Castro is an evil person with an evil past! The mental gymnastics one has to perform not to consider Castro a bad person is beyond me.

[molly77]

33. I don't understand your judgment

Castro sent trained medical personnel to New Orleans after Katrina.Bush refused them entry .

Castro sent trained medical people to Haiti where they were accepted.

[AlphaCentauri]

34. When wall street can't put their hands in a country is a bad regime

theocracies and dictatorships are ok as long as they let corporations work freely.

[hack89]

38. Only kings or dictators rule for 50 years

I don't see a crown on his head.

[unkachuck]

39. I think of Fidel....

....as one of the great Socialist Monarchs of the Americas....with a proletarian beret crown....

[EFerrari]

42. Castro is a well respected figure, an elder statesman

in Latin America and in the Caribbean. The mental gymnastics one has to perform in order to ignore that are beyond me.

[Catherina]

2. Castro's telling it as it is. Rec'd n/t

[frazzled]

4. Actually, Obama rescinded the funding to the opposition

(a neocon project) and put all the money into purely economic investment.

So, no ... Castro is not right. Never trust a man who watches Woody Woodpecker films all day.

[Catherina]

6. If you say so. Sure was nice of Obama to have a bunch of neocons at the WH today. n/t

[EFerrari]

7. No, they rescinded funding to NGOs that weren't registered with the regime. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

19. Woody Woodpecker cartoons? Really? Got a link for that?

People from the U.S. who have met him, including ALL the U.S. politicians who've made the trip, all say in in fantastically well-informed on world affairs, history, etc., etc., etc., and that he unfailingly questions people in areas he doesn't know about at great lengths, has an unquenchable thirst for information.

This has been the quality people have attributed to him throughout his life.

You are really out to smear him if you hope to make a claim like that among people who know better.

Sad. Really sad.

Funding the opposition is an unfortunately done-to-death OLD pattern by the U.S. government, extending so much further back BEFORE there were any U.S. sociopaths known as "neocons."

But then this is something you should have known, as well. The rest of us certainly do.

[Fuddnik]

27. If I have to choose between watching Blitzer or Woodpecker,

The redhead wins.

Followed by Moose and Squirrel.

[frazzled]

32. Personal knowledge

I spent some time with the former head of the Cuban Film Archives (who not long after defected!). One of his jobs was to provide private screenings for el Presidente. Someone asked him what kinds of films Castro requested. He said he mainly watched Woody Woodpecker cartoons. I swear to god, this is what I was told from the horse's mouth.

That's all, folks!

[EFerrari]

3. Would be more accurate to say our MIC continues to be underhanded

in collusion with the Egyptian MIC.

[defendandprotect]

15. MIC needs to grow, needs to keep selling weapons -- and needs our

government/taxpayers to keep lending money to nations so they can buy our

weapons!!

[fascisthunter]

5. he's right

and too many Americans just ignore him because they hate the man soooo much.

[hack89]

8. Fuck Castro. nt

[EFerrari]

9. They tried that. It didn't work. n/t

[hack89]

11. I know - too bad for the Cuban people. nt

[EFerrari]

13. Seriously, they could be Haiti by now n/t.

[jonnyblitz]

14. LOL!

:D (not that conditions in haiti are anything to laugh at, btw, laughing at your retort)

[Ignis]

45. !

:spray:

[dipsydoodle]

16. Nice one !

Very appropriate. :rofl:

[AlphaCentauri]

35. lol

:toast:

[SkyDaddy7]

23. Funny how almost everyone on DU...

is sick & tired of America supporting dictators...Except for the ones we do not support! LOL!

[AlphaCentauri]

36. we just want to end discrimination n/t

[DCKit]

10. Reducing it to such simplistic terms makes him sound senile.

This is the same kind of crap that provides fodder against Hugo Chavez - every damn time he opens his mouth.

If Fidel were American, only the Tea Baggers would fall for his schtick.

[Bacchus39]

21. Fidel's response to the crisis in Egypt is to criticize the US

same old story.

[JackRiddler]

46. You'd think the US had the power to tell Mubarak to go on the spot. Weird, eh?

As you say: Same old story. Just not the one you seem to think.

[EFerrari]

25. Well, he's right. We armed the regime and tried to co-opt the opposition.

Nothing simplistic in that at all.

[defendandprotect]

12. Thanks, Fidel-- !! Something is keeping Mubarak propped up ... and US is one of key suspects!!

[davidinalameda]

17. wonder why it's been given limited coverage

maybe they don't want to give the Cubans any ideas about over-throwing their dictator

[dipsydoodle]

22. Limited coverage by whom ?

That's extracted from Granma - the Cuban state newspaper. It was directed at the Cuban people.

It has yet to included in their English edition. There is open permission from Granma to republish Fidel's Reflections / Essays in their FULL ENTIRETY UNAMENDED- never mind the few paragraphs CNN chose to republish.

[Bacchus39]

18. Cuba should overthrow their dictator n/t

s

[AlphaCentauri]

37. and their electoral system too?

[Bacchus39]

40. I just mean the Castro boys, they can elect their next leaders in the manner they see fit n/t

s

[JI7]

20. i wonder if Obama paid Castro not to comment on the crisis in Egypt

by not commenting he is support Mubarak

[EFerrari]

26. Did you read your own OP? He's most certainly not supporting Mubarak. n/t

[JI7]

28. where does it say that ?

[EFerrari]

41. "Can the United States stop the revolutionary wave that is shaking up the Third World?" Fidel Castro

Castro is an excellent writer. In that sentence, he invokes the US's historical role as the opponent of popular revolts, including the Cuban one, and he implies his own role as a supporter of those revolutions.

[JI7]

43. that means nothing since he didn't mention Mubarak

Obama is always talking democracy and freedom , but why wont they mention Mubarak by name ?

[boppers]

44. You might have missed those threads.

The contention was that Obama was supporting Mubarak, since Obama didn't specifically ask Mubarak to step down.

Now, if that standard is applied to Castro, Castro is supporting Mubarak.

[dipsydoodle]

30. What a stupid comment.

.

[goforit]

47. A little far fetched.