He had embargoes dropped, and the potential to trade, for example, with Arkansas for rice and chickens. He went to a ball game with Obama. Perhaps he is pissed off because his team lost.
Is he just an old guy who wanted one last chance to bitch about the United States and it’s President?
Bitching about the United States has been his job for 60 years. He’s not about to give it up that easily.
Anyway, so far as I understand it, Raul is pretty much running the show now, anyway.
If I were Fidel Castro, I’d have spent most of the last 55 years being pissed at the United States. Perhaps it’s just a habit?
It very well could be.
Obama is a better man than I, and the reforms will probably go through.
Were I President, G-d forbid, I would tell him to go to hell and slap on all the embargoes I could.
He is an old revolutionary dictator in a mostly failed small country. The CIA tried to kill him a few times through ridiculous plots back in the day and JFK even tried to overthrow the whole regime through a plot that sacrificed lots of people through incompetent planning and leadership (Bay of Pigs). The U.S. has a military base on Cuba (Guantanamo Bay) that Castro has always refused lease payments for because he obviously doesn’t want it there but can’t do anything about it.
I don’t ever want to sympathize with Communist dictators, but, if I was one, I would probably give “The Empire” the finger too out of spite especially if I was in my later years.
To be fair, the U.S. hasn’t treated Cuba well at all over the past few decades and a lot of it was unilateral. We treated Russia itself much better in terms of foreign relations much better than Cuba since the late 1980’s. I am fairly conservative but I have understood the rationale behind the policies involved at least since the Cold War was over. I know a lot of it is driven by the Cuban-American communities in the U.S. (especially South Florida) that are still quite furious about having their wealth confiscated by the revolution and having to leave their homeland but they can’t be that big of an influence after all these decades.
He didn’t go to the baseball game with Obama. They never even met. Maybe he’s pissed about being sidelined by his brother.
Perhaps it was the brother I saw sitting next to Obama at the game.
Thanks, Feldon.
He’s how old?
He’s been forced retired as too old to rule.
Maybe he’s set in his ways… and maybe its some senility.
An artificial anus would make Mother Teresa grumpy.
He retired due to health issues. Raul Castro is now older than his brother was when he stepped down.
I’m thinking it’s mostly out of habit.
“Why did Castro rip into the United States?”
Why not? He got Obama’s offer of “friendship” without changing his tune. There’s no reason for him to change it now.
The more important you are, the easier it is for lesser people to rip you. You can’t improve your position by pushing them down, without being a bully. Their comments really shouldn’t matter but they do. Catch 22
nm. Forgot that Fidel was out of power.
He has his right-wing audience to please.
He doesn’t want to be remembered as “Soft on Capitalism”.
There’s little reason for anyone to care what tune Fidel sings.
Obama hasn’t - in any meaningful sense - offered friendship to Fidel. He’s offered friendship to the people of Cuba.
Continuing to treat *the people *of Cuba with disdain just because a washed up, elderly, largely powerless, probably somewhat addled, *former leader *of the country hasn’t changed his tune, would - or at least should - be somewhat beneath the US IMHO.
Fidel has almost certainly remained in power at least in part because the US fulfilled the role of bogeyman which Fidel could use to scare his populace into believing they needed him as their saviour. The last thing Fidel would ever want to admit is that the bogeyman is being friendly and reasonable, or that the bogeyman’s past behaviour should be put behind us.
Mr. Obama stepped on Fidel’s lawn…
Heh. Well put.
Did you know Cuba has always had free trade with virtually every other country besides the U.S.?
The embargo was an excuse of the Castro family to deprive Cubans of civil liberties and to keep them poor.
Do not expect them to change their ways.
Political spectrum fail. 