Sunday, November 27, 2016

So Fidel Castro is dead. This is not my sad face.


The news that Fidel Castro has died brought back one memory in particular.

I was standing in the Angolan bush, along with a group of UNITA rebels.  They were cleaning up after a firefight - which meant leaving the enemy bodies where they had fallen, but stripping them of their weapons, uniforms and supplies.  Everything would be washed, cleaned, repaired if necessary, and reissued to new owners, who would use it to kill more of the enemy.

Among the dead were two very young Cuban conscripts, some of the tens of thousands of troops sent by Fidel Castro to prop up the brutal pro-Communist regime in Angola. They were probably well under 20 years old.  They hadn't even finished growing;  they still had that gangling, slightly disjointed look of late adolescence.  Both looked as if they didn't yet need to shave every day.  They never would, now.  Their AK-47's were still half-slung.  They hadn't even managed to raise them to a firing position before the RPD bullets found them.

A grizzled NCO looked down at them, and an odd look came over his face. He spat to one side, very expressively, and murmured, "Just one more. That's all I ask.  Just one more."

I looked at him, and my eyebrows rose.  He caught my expression, and nodded.  "I want the bastard who sends kids like this over here to die."

I could hardly argue with him.

Fidel Castro murdered, imprisoned, tortured and exiled millions of his own people.  He sent tens of thousands more to countries around the world as armed, uniformed Communist surrogates, to support pro-Kremlin regimes.  He pocketed a lot of the money paid for their services by those regimes, and by Moscow . . . and never said a word about Cuban casualties, which in some cases were extensive.  (I helped to cause some of them, so I speak with a certain insight into the matter, you understand.)  The thousands more who came back from Africa infected with AIDS and other nasties were (at least from 1986 to 1993) left to rot and die in internal exile in Cuba, 'quarantined' in so-called 'sanatoria'.  I've heard from some people with inside knowledge of what went on behind their walls during those years.  It wasn't nearly as pretty as propaganda articles like to portray.  Things changed after that:  but, of course, most of those coming back from Africa with AIDS had died by then, so such harsh measures could be scaled back.

I won't pray for any man to go to Hell.  My own sins give me too much cause to fear God's justice (although, of course, I hope in his mercy) to wish that on anybody else.  However, in Fidel Castro's case, there's a very solid body of evidence suggesting that his eternal destination might not be on the upside.  I daresay we'll find out, one of these days.

I'm glad, at least, that he's no longer wasting our oxygen.

Peter

14 comments:

Tal Hartsfeld said...

Yes, but the man was 90-years-old when he finally met his ultimate mortal demise.
What does that say about any kind of "cosmic justice" (be it from God or any other source)?

David Lang said...

90 years of success vs an eternity of punishment

RustyGunner said...

From Gab: "Thanks to the Pope's intercession, Fidel Castro will be welcomed in Heaven. The catch is he has to paddle 93 shark-infested miles on an inner tube to get there."

Anonymous said...

You should not pray for his eternal damnation.
Neither must you pray for his salvation.

He was a monster. So like so many of them worldwide. We have had a few in the White House (and in both houses of Congress), who had no compunction about American's coming home in rubber bags. My heart does bleed for those young men who valiantly went off to war (whether compelled or not, off they went), thinking that they, at least, were 'defending the American Way'.

The George Soros and company way. So we have our own set of monsters. Perhaps they can be cleared but it is a difficult task when there is so much money involved.

doofus said...

New tweet from Fidel Castro. "As it turns out, Havana in August is NOT hotter than hell." #IStandCorrected

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Peter;

I figured you would have a lot to say about Castro. I remember reading in the late 70's and early 80's about the Cuban "advisors" that were working with "SWAPO" I think the acronym was. Also the running guerrilla war against the Rhodesian was immeserably helped by the Cubans with Soviet "assistance". Castro also imported a lot of his misery into central and South America. With the Nicaragua civil war and the El-Salvador and a bunch of other leftist causes He left his mark on a lot of people, and not in a good way.

Kentucky Packrat said...

There is nothing wrong with crying to the Lord for Justice, and praising God when justice is given. Moses and Miriam both sing to God when Pharaoh and the army of Egypt are destroyed. In Revelation, the saints under the altar cry out for justice, and are not told to stop, but are told to be patient just a little longer.

In this case, we may desire Castro's salvation, because God desired it. It is too late now, he is either saved or damned, and his fate will be revealed in front of God's throne.

Snoggeramus said...

Hell is by default, and I doubt that Castro was saved.

Anonymous said...

And the Left continues to fawn over Castro's demise. I don't suppose it has occurred to them that when the Cuban people flee their country on tire rafts, that isn't a clue on what living in Cuba is like. Nor do they understand why little Cuba in Florida is partying like its 1999.

Anonymous said...

Who walks anywhere where you might be ambushed with your rifle slung? What NCO lets his troops do that? Those two guys might have been the ones who save your butt... why let them be incompetent?

Robert Fowler said...

Fidel and Che, together again.

Will said...

Anon @ 9:34,

Fail reading comprehension much?

DaddyBear said...

May the Lord have mercy on his soul, but I refuse to grieve for him. I'll save my sympathy for his victims.

J. C. Salomon said...

I’m late to this discussion, but Tal Hartsfeld’s question should not go unanswered. He asks: “Yes, but the man was 90-years-old when he finally met his ultimate mortal demise. What does that say about any kind of ‘cosmic justice’ (be it from God or any other source)?”

God is entirely just, giving even the most wicked the reward for any good they’ve done in their lives. There is reason to suspect that Castro’s account of merits has been completely drained during his long and mostly comfortable life, and Divine Justice for his evils may proceed. As the psalmist wrote (Psalms 92:7–9):

“A boor cannot know, nor can a fool understand this:
“That when the wicked bloom as grass, and all doers of iniquity flourish—it is that they may be destroyed forever.
“And You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, are exalted for evermore.”