Converting Castro

Your island, Fidel, has maybe 12 million people, and there are plenty of other places these days to get rum, sun and cigars. But that wasn't really your problem, was it? Your business was never business. Your business was just to keep yourself and your system, such as it is, in power. To that end the shift of the global economy toward new centers of gravity in China and the petro-states might well do you good. Oil-rich Venezuela under Hugo Chavez already has bought your brand of anti-Americanism and is marketing it all over the map. Washington's soft power as well as its hard line has been compromised. The opportunity to kill you with kindness is passing.

So, adios, old man. Retirement can't come easy to a tyrant of such long standing. But at least you can rest assured that between the cupidity of U.S. politicians and the cacique of Caracas, your regime will find a way to live on without you.

© 2008