Itâs the same people who revile Pinochet because he was installed with the help of the CIA, got rid of a Marxist and helped Maggie Thatcher. You can bet your bottom dollar the ones defending Castro on here the last couple of days were throwing bile at Thatcher when she died and will when W kicks the bucket.
Pinochet and Castro were both odious dictators .
FFS Tim, what do you expect from the Washington Post.
Do you honestly believe most Cuban people were better off under Batista than they were under Castro?
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So you are saying one dictator was better than the other?
Castro renaged on his promise for democracy when he got in. Pinochet is criticised for leading an unelected military junta for a decade and a half.
Even when he was too ill and frail to still act as President, Castro handed it over to his brother. Ultimately, Pinochet handed power over democratically.
Both murdered citizens and commited various atrocities. Both were vile dictators.
But the left- people like Trudeau, Michael D, Sidney et al will look for balance with one (though Trudeau gave unreserved praise).
Cuba under Batista was a thriving economy compared to under Castro, the third strongest economy in the 1950s in Latin America after Venezuala and Argentina. There werenât tens of thousands fleeing Cuba on rafts in the 1950s.
Castro was a champagne socialist, son of a wealthy plantation owner. He was closer to a Nazi than Batista and a big fan of Mussolini and Franco.
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A) Cuba under Batista was a mafia run cesspit with very few Cubans benefiting.
B) The American blockade might have had something to do with why the economy suffered under Castro. Thatâs stating the bleeding obvious and Iâm surprised you would raise such an idiotic point.
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Learn a bit of history mate. Your idiotic point was that the average Cuban was better off under Castro than Batista. They werenât, and itâs not even close. Itâs hardly surprising the US resisted a mad shower of cunts on their doorstep aligning themselves with the USSR during the Cold War.
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They were saying on the radio there that Castro took power in 1959, the same year as Lemass did here. Some time span
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Our friend Fidel attempted to hire ex nazis during the missile crisis of 62. A beacon of left ideals.
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I can only assume youâve been lashing the cooking wine out of it again. Only a total moron would claim most Cubans were better off under Batista, itâs fucking laughable.
And the Americans forced the Cubans to seek Soviet protection. Ever hear of the Bay of Pigs? That was the time the Americans tried to invade the island and overthrow Castro. He was quite right to try and protect himself and his people from such naked aggression from the Yanks.
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Are you forgetting the US enforced sanctions?
Funny how the US get shit for doing deals with some dictators in the world but imposing an economy blockade on the other is the devilâs work. 
why canât the lefty headbangers bring themselves to denounce this tyrant?
Cuba was more or less a US colony under Batista. They turned a blind eye to whatever he did so long as they stayed in control.
The US spent years trying to kill or overthrow Castro for no reason other than he upset their apple cart.
It was only after he took power that he was forced by US actions to pivot to communism in order to get protection from the USSR. He wasnât actually initially a communist at all.
As for the states getting their knickers in a twist over nukes on their doorstep, the only reason the Russians put them there was because the yanks put them in Turkey.
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You mean a dictator was entitled to defend himself of course.
The left, always defenders of democracy.
Crusties like Michael D, who criticise the Sellafield nuclear plant, saying itâs justified to raise the threat of nuclear war when defending ones dictatorship.
Honest to fuck Tim, you sound like a poor manâs Richard Littlejohn. Not everything in this life is left or right. Stop talking in cliches and cop to fuck on man.
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It must be hard for a champagne socialist like yourself, sipping your expensive GnT and lamenting the plight of the average Cuban, while willfully oblivious to the economic conditions of Irish people living outside D4.
Do some research on the economy of Cuba before and after Castro came to power. Do you really think the US economy hurt Cuba (it did) more than nationalizing industry and agriculture and driving out US investment? If you are confused about the economic success of communist states, study the collapse of the USSR or maybe move to the communist utopia of North Korea.
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oooffft
watching the NFL, sipping a GT, a true socialist alright
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No, and Iâm not denying they hurt the Cuban economy, but Castroâs policies hurt it more. Unless you believe communism is a better economic model than capitalism.