"Fidel Castro stands in a long line of great socialist leaders who betrayed socialism. "
What a load of unqualified shit from one of the extremist right wingers on this form - how would you know the first thing about Socialism?
Lenin - he died when socialism hadn't even begun to be put into place in aRussia hat was still recovering from a Civil war supported by troops from 14 "free countries" - how the **** could he have betrayed something that he was foremost in fighting for.
Trotsy was driven into exile and eventually murdered because he refused to compromise his socialist beliefs.
Mao led China out of a primitive feudal system to become a leading industrial nation - - it took around half a century to achieve this economic miracle   
Chou En Lai
This is straight from the John Birch handbook of Political Science
The greates mass murderers in history were the Empire and post Empire Governments who exploited and massacred entire nations, caused two world wars, and continue exploit and oppress nations in pursuit of markets and oil.
You pricks talk about political oppression and ignore the fact that on the coast of "oppressed" Cuba, America that a concentration camp populated by "SUSPECTS" that have been illegally held in inhuman conditions without charge or trial for over a decade, chained and boirler-suited in cages, in temperatures that have topped 102 degrees,
"Democratic" America has carried out invasions and ongoing acts of terrorism and acts of torture and murder against states and orgnaisations who they disapprove of and believe to be a threat to their well-being.
When the Cuban revolution was in its infancy black people in the nearest American States were being arrested, beaten by the police and state forces, incarcerated, shot down and their places of worship burned to the ground FOR DEMANDING THE VOTE
Even today, blacks in America can be shot down in the street by the forces of law and order sometimes for protesting, but mostly for being black, whithout any consequences to their killers.
Black have been murdered by neighbourhood watch vigilantes and their killers have been allowed to walk free.
You people talk about prisons - go count the proportion of blacks to whites who are incarcerated, particularly those on Death Row.
For over a decade since the Companéros came to power, America waged war on an impoverished country that had already suffered a dozen years of warfare, pouring burning jellified petrol on the homes and fields of the farmers - and the people themselves, along with spraying their crops with carcinogenic chemicals that were even infecting and killing off the American pilots who flew the planes.
In the South of that country, American servicemen were being entertained with shows of Vietnamese women being fucked by animals - just like the good old days in Cuba.
America has instigated, financed, and even participated in the overthrow of legally elected governments - Greece and Chile being two examples.
It has supported and financed some of the greatest mass-murdering monsters on the planet - all done while pointing a finger at "undemocratic" Cuba.
Amarica hasantiquated gun-laws dating back centuries, which make many of its cities the most dangerous places on the planet....
And all of this has been supported by America's most faithful ally - Britain, actually or with uncritical silence.
The "free world" is now in the throes of a war with third world impoverished countries - its greed directly helped to cause those wars - that situation is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.
Where do you stop with this list - it is endless - and Cuba is "undemocratic and oppressive"
Amarica has just elected an openly Fascist President whose declared election promises will increase and accelerate the present situation - specifically targeting its own national the poor and immigrants
And women have been openly denigrated and their safety threatened - by the victorious President's own words - accessible pussy .
What few health measures its previous President managed to put into place, against massive opposition, are quite likely to be severely reduced and may disappear altogether, returning to the situation of a few years ago where, if you were poor and couldn't pay for medical care, you suffered and died - where the first thing that was checked when you were taken into hospital wasn't your pulse or your heart, but your wallet.
Cuba has suffered a over half-century blockade of trade and survived.
Its president has survived 638 ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS by or instigated by the CIA, overssen my * American Presidents.
For all his faults, I regret Castro's death just as much as I look forward with fear to the ongoing acts of war and terror carried out by the U.S. - particularly under its potential Fascist Dictator - who will, no doubt, have the full support of our elected representatives, as things stand at present.
What a legacy we have left to our children eh?
Jim Carroll